GIFT  OF 


WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 


PIETY  THE   ONLY  FOUNDATION 


TRUE  AND  SUBSTANTIAL  JOY. 


BY  REV.  J.   B.   WATERBURY,  D.D. 
q 

AUTHOR  OF  "ADVICE  TO  A  YOUNG  CHRISTIAN,"  ETC, 


u  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always." 

r        ,    ,  . 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE 
AMERICAN  TRACT   SOCIETY, 

150    NASSAU-STREET,    NEW    YORK. 


^ 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  18.31,  by  TARED 
B.  WATKRBURY,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  South- 
ern District  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


Right  of  publishing  transferred  to  the  American  Tract  Society 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

Piety  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  gloom,       ....       7 
CHAPTER  II. 

Piety  gives  more  joy  than  it  takes  away, 13 

CHAPTER   III. 

The  adaptation  of  religion  to  all  the  soul's  desires,    .     .     19 
CHAPTER  IV. 

The  joy  of  true  piety, 24 

CHAPTER  V. 

Pious  joy  enjoined  in  the  Scriptures, 29 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  foundation  of  pious  joy, 35 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  joy  of  believing  in  God, .40 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Pious  joy  connected  with  proper  conceptions  of  the  divine 

character, 45 

CHAPTER   IX. 
The  relation  of  pious  joy  to  the  doctrine  of  Providence,  .     50 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  joy  of  salvation, 56 

CHAPTER   XI. 
Joyful  promises, 62 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Joyful  prospects, 68 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
Obstructions  to  pious  joy,     . 73 


438938 


4  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Constant  contact  with  the  world  unfavorable  to  pious  joy,     78 

CHAPTER   XV. 
The  same  subject  continued, 83 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

The   pursuit   of   riches   unfavorable  to    a    Christian's   hap- 
piness,       89 

CHAPTER   XVII. 
Social    and   business  pledges   sometimes   obstructions  to  a 

Christian's  joy. — Social  pledges, 95 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Business  pledges, 10J 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  influence  of  light  reading  opposed  to  the  progress  of 
piety, 107 

CHAPTER  XX. 
The  spirit  of  controversy  opposed  to  the  exercise  of  pious 

joy, 113 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Circumstances  favorable  to  the  promotion  of  pious  joy,     119 
CHAPTER   XXII. 

The  useful  Christian  happy, 125 

CHAPTER   XXIII. 
The  joy  of  contentment, 130 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Submission, 136 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
Joy  in  death, 142 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
Conclusion, \.\cj 


PREFACE. 


IN  this  small  volume  an  attempt  is  made  to  an- 
swer the  question,  "  Who  are  the  happy  ?"  Many 
who  are  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  true  religion,  who 
have  never  personally  experienced  its  joys  or  its 
consolations,  entertain  the  idea  that  it  wars  against 
their  felicity.  Indeed,  some  go  so  far  as  to  assert 
that  religion  actually  makes  its  votaries  gloomy. 

To  repel  this  charge  is  the  design  of  the  first 
part  of  this  treatise.  If  the  reader  have  indulged 
such  false  and  absurd  notions,  the  perusal  of  these 
pages,  it  is  hoped,  will  convince  him  of  his  error, 
and  disclose  to  him  the  fact  that  piety  is  the  only 
foundation  of  true  and  substantial  joy. 

Another  part  of  the  work  is  adapted  more  espe- 
cially to  a  class  of  young  professors  of  religion,  who, 
in  the  present  day,  are  peculiarly  exposed  to  be 
drawn  aside  from  the  path  of  Christian  duty  by 
temptations  addressed  to  their  cupidity,  their  curi- 
osity, and  their  love  of  excitement.  If  the  writer 
shall  have  succeeded  in  warning  such  against  the 
evils  which  threaten,  or  in  fortifying  them  under 


;  WFACE. 

the  actual  assault,  it  will  afford  him  the  most  heart- 
felt satisfaction. 

An  eminent  minister  once  said,  that  "  some  per- 
sons have  just  religion  enough  to  make  them  mis- 
erable." The  object  of  this  treatise,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  to  urge  its  readers  to  seek  for  those  attain- 
ments in  piety  which  shall  be  not  only  a  solace 
under  the  trials  of  life,  hut  which  shall  make  their 
felicity  sure,  and  place  it  on  a  foundation  which 
can  never  be  disturbed.  j.  B.  w 


TTHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 


CHAPTER  I. 

HETT  YOTHCAIED  FKOM  THE  CHARGE  OF  GDOO1L 

*  RELIGION  makes  men  gloomy,"  says  the  thought- 
less votary  of  the  world.  This  allegation,  if  true, 
would  be  at  least  a  p1«isiMj»  ground  of  prejudice 
against  true  piety;  but  it  is  made,  as  we  shall  see, 

'Without  proper  <ji SCTI TTI^ IM^VMBI  TffiHFfffftTnff  t\ift  na^irff 


;He  who  brings  this  charge,  judges  merely  from 
the  serious  i  •  pi  i  MM  in  of  countenance  which  many 
professors  of  religion  wear,  and  from  the  voluntary 
relinquifihments  of  the  gayeties  of  life  which  is 
observed  to  take  place  when  they  unite  with  the 
church  of  God.  2fo  estimation  is  made  of  the 
grand  equivalent  which  piety  gives  for  the  renun- 
ciation of  such  vanities.  Men  look  only  at  the 
cross.  They  take  their  views  from  the  self-denial 
and  the  labors  which  he  who  bears  it  is  called  upon, 
to  meet.  They  have  no  standard  by  which  to 
judge  but  their  own  experience,  or  rather,  they 


3  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

seem  not  to  adopt  any  other  ;  and  finding  their 
own  joy,  and,  we  may  add,  their  only  joy,  to  be 
inseparable  from  the  pleasures  and  the  honors  of 
the  world,  they  conclude,  that  he  who  for  the 
sake  of  religion  voluntarily  foregoes  them,  must 
of  necessity  be  condemned  to  a  life  of  despondency 
and  gloom. 

But  has  it  never  occurred  to  those  who  bring 
this  charge,  that  since  they  have  not  themselves 
made  a  practical  experiment  of  the  influence  of 
piety,  they  are  not  properly  qualified  judges  in  the 
case  ?  By  the  laws  of  God  we  are  permitted  to  seek 
the  highest  amount  of  true  and  permanent  felicity 
of  which  our  nature  is  susceptible.  Does  this  true 
and  enduring  happiness  lie  in  the  path  of  the  pleas- 
urist  and  the  worldling  ?  Then  would  the  Chris- 
tian be  unwise  for  travelling  out  of  it.  He  would 
be  warranted,  it  might  almost  be  said,  in  retracing 
his  steps — in  hastening  away  from  a  region  where, 
according  to  the  supposition,  no  sunlight  falls  upon 
his  path,  nor  fragrant  flower  blooms  to  enliven  it ; 
but  where  every  step  is  planted  with  thorns  to 
pierce  his  feet  as  he  explores  his  melancholy  way 
through  the  world. 

While  such  is  the  picture  of  a  life  of  piety  which 
fills  the  imagination  of  the  gay  world,  their  own 
path,  they  would  fiave  us  understand,  is  one  per- 
petual series  of  Delights.  It  is  implied  in  their 


PIETY  NOT  GLOOMY.  9 

allegation,  that  no  shadows  fall  around  their  para- 
dise, nor  a  thorn  obtrudes  from  that  bed  of  roses  on 
which  they  profess  to  recline.  We  shall  not  stop 
here  to  settle  the  question  how  far  these  scenes  are 
a  mere  fancy  sketch,  nor  at  present  disallow  the 
claim  to  happiness  which  the  pleasurist  and  world- 
ling prefer.  If  they  can,  in  the  sincerity  of  their 
souls,  affirm  that  these  pleasures  make  them  as 
happy  as  they  desire  to  be,  we  shall  not  just  now 
put  any  questions,  nor  make  any  appeals  with  a 
view  to  overshadow  so  agreeable  a  prospect. 

The  aim  of  the  writer  is  rather  to  vindicate  piety 
from  an  unjust  aspersion,  namely,  that  she  robes  her 
followers  in  gloom  and  sadness.  That  she  makes 
them  serious,  we  do  not  deny ;  but  there  is  a  wide 
difference  between  sobriety  and  melancholy.  So- 
briety is  not  opposed  to  cheerfulness,  though  it  is  to 
levity.  Cheerfulness  abounds  everywhere  in  the 
works  of  God,  but  levity  nowhere,  except  in  the 
bosom  and  on  the  countenance  of  the  thoughtless  ; 
and  there,  it  is  not  the  legitimate  expression  of  God's 
image,  but  the  evidence  and  the  effervescence  of 
sin.  The  lark  is  cheerful,  as  it  mounts  from  its 
grassy  nest,  and  singing  soars  away  to  the  heavens. 
Cheerful  also  is  the  summer  morning,  revealing  its 
glad  scenery,  as  the  rising  sun  gilds  one  feature 
after  another  of  the  landscape.  Nature  in  all  this 
has  a  lesson  for  man.  She  seems  to  teach  him 


10  WHO   ARE   THE    HAPPY? 

that  piety,  in  inculcating  cheerfulness  while  shf 
rebukes  levity,  responds  to  her  own  emphatic  in- 
structions. 

They  mistake,  depend  upon  it,  who  interpret  a 
serious  face  as  the  index  of  a  heavy  heart.  It  is 
excessive  mirth  that  leaves  the  heart  sad  ;  since, 
in  this  latter  case,  the  depression  which  invariably 
succeeds,  is  but  the  repayment  which  nature  de 
mands  for  violence  done  to  her  moral  powers.  "We 
might  enlarge  on  this  point,  and  show  that  the 
perpetual  draft  which  the  pleasurist  makes  on  the 
excitability  of  the  physical  constitution  is  directly 
adverse  to  happiness,  if  not  destructive  of  health ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  we  could  easily  make  it 
appear  that  the  serenity  and  composure  of  the  Chris- 
tian are  in  unison  with  the  physical  improvement 
as  well  as  the  moral  condition  of  man.  It  might 
in  this  way  be  proved,  that  upon  striking  the  balance 
of  mere  physical  happiness  between  the  serious 
Christian  and  the  gay,  unthinking  child  of  levity, 
there  would  be  a  decided  advantage  in  favor  of  the 
former. 

Thus  it  appears  that  piety  is  not  to  be  blamed 
for  making  her  friends  and  followers  serious,  if 
thereby  she  make  them  happier.  Let  her  not  again 
be  accused  of  making  them  gloomy.  Religion  maks 
the  soul  gloomy !  There  is  nothing  but  this  in  the 
wide  universe  which  can  really  dispel  its  gloom. 


TIETY  NOT  GLOOMY.  11 

If  the  heart  be  heavy  and  sad  from  the  burden  of 
temporal  affliction,  or  from  the  pressure  of  conscious 
guilt,  where  can  it  find  a  remedy  but  in  religion? 
You  may  take  that  burdened  heart  to  the  haunts 
of  pleasure,  and  try  to  enliven  it  by  sallies  of  wit, 
by  the  fascinations  of  beauty,  or  by  the  excitement 
of  the  revel.  Vain  will  be  your  attempt.  You  are 
not  allaying,  you  are  only  aggravating  the  disorder. 
There  is  but  one  influence  which  can  effectually 
reach  and  relieve  that  heart,  or  drive  from  that 
anxious  countenance  its  look  of  deep  despondency. 
Religion  can  do  it.  It  is  her  province  alone  to 
medicate  the  wounds  of  our  disordered  nature,  and 
to  send  the  glow  of  spiritual  health  through  the 
soul.  And  when  she  comes  to  perform  her  work 
of  love  and  mercy,  she  first,  like  her  great  Author, 
enters  the  polluted  temple  of  the  heart,  and  with  a 
scourge  drives  out  the  intruder,  and  then  conse- 
crates it  by  her  presence  and  illuminates  it  by  her 
own  heavenly  smile. 

Something,  it  is  true,  must  be  allowed  for  the 
varying  temperaments  upon  which  piety  exerts  its 
influence.  The  constitutionally  lethargic  man  may 
not  exhibit  his  piety  in  so  alluring  a  light  as  one 
who  by  nature  possesses  a  mirthful  and  elastic 
mind.  But  even  in  the  former,  a  close  observer 
will  discover  an  attractive  gleam  which  the  Sun  of 
righteousness  has  flung  upon  the  native  dulness  of 


12  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

the  character ;  while  in  the  latter,  the  excessive 
buoyancy  is  chastened  into  a  reasonable  and  happy 
flow  of  spirits.  But  in  all,  the  influence  of  piety 
is  to  spread  cheerfulness  over  the  soul ;  and  by 
giving  it  the  hopes  and  prospects  of  heaven,  to 
introduce  into  it  some  of  its  anticipated  joys. 


PIETY  INCREASES   HAPPINESS.  13 

CHAPTER  II. 

PIETY  GIVES  MORE  JOYS  THAN  IT  TAKES  AWAY. 

NOT  to  enlarge  on  the  unreasonableness  of  expect- 
ing that  in  every  case  piety  will  so  alter  the  natural 
disposition  as  to  make  the  melancholy  invariably 
cheerful,  and  reduce  the  diversified  temperaments 
of  men  to  one  uniform  tone,  we  may  now  consider 
another  point  connected  with  the  charge  that  "  relig- 
ion makes  its  possessors  gloomy,"  namely,  that  it 
requires  them  to  forsake  the  pleasures  and  gayeties 
of  the  world. 

By  these  pleasures  is  meant  the  ordinary  worldly 
amusements  which,  with  almost  common  consent, 
Christians  have  felt  it  their  duty  to  relinquish. 
Some  professors  whose  belief  and  practice  are  not 
intended  to  be  very  strict,  have,  we  know,  mingled 
unscrupulously  in  such  scenes,  and  partaken  of  such 
pleasures.  But  we  are  now  speaking  of  the  truly 
pious,  of  those  whose  religion  not  only  forbids,  but 
powerfully  dissuades  from  their  indulgence.  In  this 
latter  case,  the  relinquishment  is  not  a  forced  but 
a  voluntary  act.  It  is  not  so  much  the  coercion  of 
stern  duty  as  the  sweet  constraint  of  an  honest, 
heart-felt  preference  of  better  things.  This  is  plac- 
ing the  subject  in  its  true  light;  and  in  this  way 


14  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

we  maintain  that  piety  gives  more  joys  than  it 
takes  away. 

It  is  not  the  intention  of  the  writer  to  assert, 
that  there  is  no  felicity  whatever  in  the  pleasures 
which  a  gay  and  thoughtless  world  have  planned 
and  are  pursuing  ,*  for  if  there  were  none,  why 
should  they  be  sought,  and  why  are  they  con- 
tinued ?  The  aim  of  all  is  to  secure  in  some 
form  that  happiness  which  the  soul  of  man  natu- 
rally craves.  It  is  with  the  hope  of  satisfying  this 
desire  of  the  heart,  that  the  invention  is  tasked  to 
furnish  a  sufficient  variety  of  social  and  animal 
gratifications  whereby  the  mind  may  be  excited 
and  its  depressing  thoughts  and  anxieties  driven 
away.  In  part  the  plan  is  successful.  There  is  a 
certain  amount  of  pleasure  experienced  in  the  antici- 
pation and  enjoyment  of  these  things,  although  the 
most  eager  votary,  it  is  probable,  would  confess  that 
there  is  not  so  much  real  felicity  as  the  inexperi- 
enced generally  imagine.  But  in  this  case  the  heart 
has  never  tasted  purer  and  more  soul-satisfying 
delights.  The  round  of  social  festivity  and  amuse- 
ment is  the  only  circle  in  which  it  has  revolved  ; 
and  these  artificial  pleasures  are  the  only  or  the 
principal  ones  which  it  has  been  taught  to  covet 
and  appropriate. 

Now,  hpw  impossible,  that  one  schooled  only  in 
these  entertainments  should  be  able  to  form  a  cor- 


PIETY  INCREASES  HAPPINESS.  15 

rect  judgment  of  the  pleasures  of  true  piety,  since 
the  latter  have  not  only  never  been  enjoyed,  but  are 
of  a  nature  so  different  from  those  which  have  been 
alluded  to.  It  is  as  if  you  were  to  ask  a  native 
of  the  frozen  zone,  who  had  never  been  out  of 
sight  of  the  eternal  snows  which  mantle  those 
repulsive  regions,  for  an  opinion  of  the  warmer 
climes  where  nature  is  so  lavish  of  her  charms. 
He  might  expatiate  on  the  attractions  of  his  own 
home,  and  talk  of  its  superiority  to  all  other  scenes  ; 
and  he  might  recoil  at  the  idea  of  a  transfer  to  a 
more  genial  region  ;  but  surely,  if  his  foot  never 
trod  the  flowery  path  of  the  tropics,  he  would  be  a 
very  inadequate  judge  of  the  bright  suns  and  fra 
grant  beauties  which  their  inhabitants  experience 

Without  denying  to  the  pleasurist  some  of  the 
felicity  which  he  claims — alas,  how  inadequate  ! — 
we  ask  him  to  correct  his  judgment  as  to  the  hap- 
piness of  the  pious ;  no  longer  to  fling  upon  relig- 
ion the  unjust  charge  that  she  is  the  cause  of  gloom ; 
nor  to  suppose  that,  because  she  calls  us  from  the 
region  which  he  occupies  to  one  more  salubrious  and 
cheering,  she  thereby  cuts  us  off  from  the  felicities 
of  life. 

But  suppose  even  that  piety  abridged  its  disciples 
of  every  earthly  pleasure,  and  gave  them  only  a 
cup  of  suffering,  still  it  might  with  reason  be  main- 
tained, that  in  view  of  her  eternal  rewards,  the 


16  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

disciple  would  be  infinitely  the  gainer.  Such  was, 
in  a  great  degree,  the  case  with  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians. But  no  gloom  or  despondency  hung  around 
their  brows.  One  of  them  could  exclaim,  "  I  glory 
in  infirmity."  In  view  of  heavy  afflictions  he  could 
say,  "  I  do  rejoice,  yea,  and  ivill  rejoice."  The 
point  before  us  is,  that  piety  gives  more  joys  and 
purer,  than  she  takes  away.  We  hope  in  the  course 
of  our  remarks  this  will  appear ;  and  while  it  may 
be  our  duty  to  expose  the  unworthy  compromise  with 
the  world  which  some  professors  of  religion  are 
attempting  to  make,  we  shall  aim  to  show  that 
there  is  nothing  in  piety  to  curtail  our  true  felicity  ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  that  she  bestows  a  glorious 
equivalent  for  all  the  self-denials  which  she  lays 
upon  her  disciples.  Too  often  is  this  feature  of 
our  religion  overlooked,  and  hence  the  incorrect 
judgment  which  is  sometimes  formed  of  its  influence 
upon  the  happiness  of  man. 

Religion  is  viewed  by  the  unreflecting  son  and 
daughter  of  pleasure,  as  a  stern  and  forbidding 
monster,  who  wears  an  iron  visage,  and  holds  in 
his  hand  a  rod  of  anger ;  who  comes  to  wither 
every  rational  enjoyment,  and  to  condemn  the  heart 
to  a  state  of  isolated  misery.  How  unworthy  are 
such  impressions  of  that  system  of  mercy  which  God 
has  devised  to  heal  the  sorrows  and  to  cleanse  the 
pollution  of  the  soul.  But  let  the  heart  once  feel 


PIETY  INCREASES  HAPPINESS.  17 

the  power  of  divine  grace,  and  this  imaginary  mon- 
ster is  quickly  transformed  into  a  real  seraph,  yes, 
a  celestial  visitant  robed  in  purity,  and  dignified 
with  more  than  angel  majesty.  Her  smile  is  the 
sunshine  of  the  soul.  Her  voice  is  the  music  of 
heaven.  She  comes  not  to  abridge,  but  to  enlarge 
the  sphere  of  human  felicity.  For  the  joys  she  in- 
terdicts she  tenders  others  a  thousand- fold  more  pure 
and  elevating.  Communion  with  her  makes  the 
heart  sick  of  all  inferior  beauty.  It  has  henceforth 
lost  in  a  great  measure  its  relish  for  the  low  and 
transient  delights  of  the  sensual  and  the  gay.  After 
having  tasted  of  so  pure  a  fountain,  why,  indeed, 
should  it  turn  back  to  quaff'  the  muddy  and  turbu- 
lent streams  of  earth  ?  Why,  after  a  glimpse  of 
celestial  glories,  should  it  be  interested  in  the  arti- 
ficial and  unsatisfying  round  of  this  world's  amuse- 
ments ? 

No ;  piety  takes  nothing  away  that  is  worth  re- 
taining, nor  does  she  withhold  what  is  desirable 
and  necessary.  She  allows  every  pleasure  that  is 
consistent  with  the  good  of  our  immortal  nature  ; 
with  her  self-denials,  even  with  the  cross  which  she 
imposes,  she  connects  a  felicity  which  her  sincere 
and  faithful  followers  alone  can  understand  and 
appreciate.  "  Her  ways,"  says  Solomon,  "  are  ways 
of  pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths  are  peace."  Deny 
this  who  may,  they  know  it  to  be  true  who  have 

Wha  are  Happy  \  2 


18  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

walked  in  her  ways  and  gathered  along  their  bright 
path  the  spiritual  joys  which  she  has  furnished  to 
the  pilgrim. 

"The  joys  that  fade  are  not  for  me ; 
I  seek  immortal  joys  above  : 
There,  glory  without  end  shall  be 
The  bright  reward  of  faith  and  love.'7 


RELIGION  SATISFIES  THE   SOUL.  J9 

CHAPTER   III. 

RELIGION  ADAPTED  TO  THE  SOUL'S  DESIRES. 

MAN  may  be  said  to  possess  four  classes  of  desires, 
comprehended  under  the  terms,  animal,  social,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral. 

The  animal  desires  he  has  in  common  with  the 
brute  creation.  These  may  be  satisfied  independent 
of  religion ;  but  they  are  to  be  under  her  control, 
or  they  become  inordinate  and  therefore  sinful.  In- 
dulged beyond  the  boundaries  which  she  has  fixed, 
they  are  the  occasion  of  guilt  and  misery.  Hence, 
religion  is  all-important  to  restrain  and  guide  these 
passions,  so  that  they  may  not  consume  their  victim 
by  the  intensity  of  their  flame. 

The  social  desires  can  be  gratified  without  relig- 
ion ;  but  never,  as  it  appears  to  the  writer,  can  they, 
without  its  influence,  be  the  source  of  all  that  hap- 
piness which  they  were  designed  to  afford.  There 
is  much  to  mar  the  communion  even  of  kindred 
minds  where  true  piety  is  not  the  cementing  bond. 
How  often  does  envy  prove  the  cause  of  coldness 
and  alienation  ;  and  how  small  a  circumstance  will 
at  times  imbitter  and  interrupt  the  intercourse  which 
had  been  commenced  under  high  anticipations  of 
permanent  friendship.  Piety  is  a  check  to  these 
intervening  barriers,  and  is  ever  ready  not  only  to 


20  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

sweeten  the  fellowship  of  kindred  minds,  but  to 
counteract  the  causes  of  dissatisfaction  and  aliena- 
tion. In  her  train  comes  charity,  foremost  of  the 
graces,  who  has  a  smile  for  every  heart,  and  a  tear 
for  every  fault,  and  a  look  of  generous  forgiveness 
even  when  her  laws  have  been  violated.  Besides, 
religion  furnishes  those  pure,  ennobling  topics  which 
awaken  kindred  feelings,  and  which  become  addi- 
tional ligatures  to  bind  in  closest  affinity  the  souls  of 
the  pious. 

The  pleasures  also  of  the  intellect  may  be  enjoyed 
without  piety.  In  the  varied  field  of  investigation 
which  God  has  spread  out  to  man,  every  taste  may 
be  indulged,  and  every  faculty  of  the  mind  em- 
ployed and  strengthened.  Philosophy  we  know  has 
walked  abroad  over  this  scene  of  wonders,  and 
culled  a  thousand  gems  to  adorn  and  to  dignify 
the  mind  of  man.  Poetry  has  explored  every  vale, 
ascended  every  mountain  height,  winged  her  flight 
to  the  visible  heavens,  plunged  into  ocean's  bed, 
penetrated  nature's  solitudes,  left  no  spot  unvisited, 
in  order  to  string  her  lyre  with  sweet  chords  that 
should  thrill  on  the  soul's  deep  feelings.  But  who 
does  not  see,  that  if  religion  be  excluded  from  all 
connection  with  such  pleasures  and  pursuits,  they 
must  lose  much  of  the  relish  which  they  would 
otherwise  possess  ?  The  intellect  is  too  closely  re- 
lated to  the  moral  powers  to  operate  with  its  full 


RELIGION  SATISFIES  THE   SOUL.  21 

force,  and  to  communicate  by  its  exercise  the  highest 
good,  while  that  relation  is  unacknowledged.  If, 
as  Dr.  Young  observes,  "  an  undevout  astronomer  is 
mad,"  surely  an  atheist  poet,  or  one  whose  muse 
never  lifts  her  eye  beyond  earth's  narrow  bounds, 
is  no  less  so.  But  piety  has  spread  wide  her  treas- 
ures for  the  inquisitive  mind  ;  and  he  who  refuses 
to  examine  them,  must  lose  a  rich  harvest  of  intel- 
lectual pleasure. 

There  is  a  fourth  class  of  desires  which  we  call 
moral,  or  perhaps  they  may  more  properly  be  termed 
immortal  desires.  Now  we  ask,  What  provision  is 
made  for  their  gratification  ? 

The  world  has  aliment  for  the  animal  desires ; 
all  nature  is  ransacked  to  administer  to  their  indul- 
gence. Even  the  lawTs  of  God  are  trampled  upon  in 
order  to  "  sow  to  the  flesh."  The  pampered  appetite, 
like  a  spoiled  child,  is  asked  what  new  variety  can 
now  be  furnished  to  suit  its  capricious  longings. 

The  world  has  also  cultivated  the  social  affec- 
tions, and  made  a  liberal  provision  for  their  gratifi- 
cation. What  ceaseless  rounds  of  amusement !  What 
crowded  assemblies !  What  exciting  collision  of 
wit  and  repartee !  How  has  the  human  invention 
been  tasked  to  produce  new  forms  of  social  inter- 
course, by  which  men  of  varying  tastes  may  mingle 
with  some  hope  of  reciprocal  pleasure ! 

Nor  have  men  been  neglectful  of  the  intellect. 


22  'WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

In  every  department  of  taste  and  of  learning,  multi- 
tudes are  found  whose  pleasures  rise  above  those 
just  named ;  for  we  hold  that  next  to  the  moral 
affections,  the  improvement  of  the  intellect  is  the 
purest  source  of  human  felicity. 

But  one  class  of  desires  still  remains — the  moral 
or  immortal  desires;  and  we  again  ask,  Has  the 
world  made  any  provision  for  them  ?  No  man  but 
an  atheist  will  deny  to  us  the  possession  of  such 
desires ;  nor  can  any  with  reason  deny  that  they 
are  the  most  important,  if  not  the  most  importu- 
nate of  our  wants.  The  highest  glory  of  man  is 
not  that  he  is  an  animal,  and  therefore  his  highest 
pleasure  cannot  lie  in  the  gratification  of  the  senses. 
Nor  is  it  his  highest  dignity  that  he  is  a  social 
being,  for  even  the  brute  creation  are,  in  a  sense, 
assimilated  to  him  in  this  respect ;  nor  even  that 
he  has  an  intellect  capable  of  enjoying  the  pursuits 
of  science.  No,  his  highest  dignity  and  glory  con- 
sist in  his  moral  nature ;  and  his  most  important 
wants  are  those  which  respect  immortality.  And 
yet  it  is  a  melancholy  fact,  that  no  provision  is 
made  by  the  world  for  this  class  of  desires ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  every  expedient  is  adopted  to  thwart 
and  to  suppress  them.  Here  is  certainly  a  great 
deficiency.  One  part  of  our  nature,  arid  that  con- 
fessedly the  most  important,  is,  in  the  general  pro- 
vision of  the  world  for  human  happiness,  entirely 


RELIGION  SATISFIES  THE   SOUL-  23 

overlooked  and  neglected.  No  wonder  man  is  not 
happy  in  the  indulgence  of  his  passions,  that  even 
social  bliss  meets  not  his  large  desires,  and  intellec- 
tual pursuits  still  leave  him  craving  after  some- 
thing else.  It  is  the  voice  of  nature,  complaining 
that  her  noblest  aspirations  are  unheeded ;  and  tak- 
ing retribution  for  the  neglect  by  withholding  that 
satisfaction  which  the  sinner  is  striving  in  vain  to 
secure.  Ye  men  of  the  world,  ye  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  pleasure,  look  at  this  deficiency  in  your 
arrangements,  and  know  that  until  it  is  supplied 
you  cannot  be  at  peace.  Now  the  Christian  has 
this  advantage  over  you,  that  while  piety  permits 
him  to  enjoy  all  the  pleasures  of  sense  that  are 
lawful,  and  social  felicity,  and  intellectual  pursuits, 
and  enhances  even  these  sources  of  good  to  man, 
she  also  gives  him  the  bread  of  life  for  the  soul. 
The  immortal  desires  more  than  all  others  she 
meets  with  the  requisite  aliment.  Is  this  no  advan- 
tage ;  and  are  these  joys  of  the  spirit  no  increase 
in  the  general  average  of  human  felicity  ?  Ah,  in 
the  language  of  Cowper,  Christians  can  say, 

u  Prom  thee  is  all  that  soothes  the  life  of  man  j 
His  high  endeavor,  and  his  glad  success, 
His  strength  to  suffer,  and  his  will  to  serve. 
But  0,  thou  bounteous  Giver  of  all  good, 
Thou  art  of  all  thy  gifts  thyself  the  crown  ! 
Give  what  thou  canst,  without  thee  we  are  poor; 
And  with  thee  rich,  take  what  thou  wilt  away." 


24  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   JOY  OF  TRUE  PIETY. 

ENOUGH  has  been  said,  we  trust,  to  rescue  true 
piety  from  the  aspersion  so  often  cast  upon  it,  that 
it  produces  gloom  and  despondency.  We  hope  that 
none  of  our  readers  will  again  indulge  such  a 
thought ;  but  if  they  discover  in  the  countenance  or 
conduct  of  its  professors  any  thing  of  this  nature, 
they  will  refer  it  to  the  influence  of  something  else 
besides  piety.  It  may  be  the  individual  tempera- 
ment, which  by  nature  sad,  is  gradually  assuming, 
under  the  influence  of  religion,  a  more  cheerful 
tone  ;  or  it  may  arise  from  some  passing  cloud  which 
has  temporarily  overshadowed  the  believer's  mind ; 
or,  what  is  not  uncommon,  it  may  be  a  pensive  and 
sorrowful  feeling  in  view  of  the  folly  and  madness  of 
the  careless,  unthinking  sinner.  Impenitent  reader, 
the  gloom  which  you  charge  upon  religion  is  often 
the  outward  sign  of  compassion  for  your  soul.  In- 
terpret that  look  aright.  Ascribe  it  not  to  piety, 
except  as  she  teaches  her  followers  to  pity  the  lost. 

We  shall  attempt  in  the  subsequent  pages  to  lay 
open  THE  SOURCES  OF  JOY  AND  FELICITY  which  the 
believer  possesses,  and  endeavor  to  show,  that  if  a 
Christian  is  not  happy,  it  is  from  no  deficiency  in  the 


JOY  OF  TRUE  PIETY.  25 

provision,  nor  in  the  means  of  obtaining  it.  We  shall 
take  as  our  motto  the  exhortation  of  the  apostle, 
"  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always ;  and  again  I  say, 
rejoice."  Here  we  are  explicitly  directed  to  be 
cheerful,  happy,  yea,  even  joyful.  We  are  required 
to  exhibit  our  religion  under  a  pleasing  aspect,  to 
wear  a  smile  even  when  others  would  weep,  and  to 
sing  our  song  of  triumph  when  others  would  sink  in 
despair.  Is  piety,  then,  at  war  with  nature  ?  0  no, 
she  only  sustains  nature  under  the  burdens  which 
our  apostate  state  has  laid  upon  it.  Religion  forbids 
not  the  heart  to  melt  for  sorrows  felt  or  witnessed. 
The  tears  that  dropped  into  the  grave  of  Lazarus 
affirm  this.  But  the  sympathies  of  the  man  only 
set  off  to  the  more  advantage  the  moral  support  of 
the  Christian;  and  while  nature  is  dissolved  in 
grief,  piety  is  near  to  wipe  the  falling  tear,  and 
throw  around  the  soul  her  all-supporting  arms. 
There  is  no  stoicism  in  religion.  But  her  joy  is 
calm,  not  boisterous ;  and  her  sympathies  deep  in 
proportion  to  the  real  amount  of  suffering  experi- 
enced or  anticipated. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  the  duty  of  all  true  Christians 
to  evince  to  the  world  that  their  religion  has  taken 
off  from  the  soul  the  garments  of  mourning,  and 
clothed  it  in  the  spirit  of  gladness.  How  little  of 
this  rejoicing  has  been  heard  in  the  tabernacles  of 
the  righteous.  How  few  Christians  have  felt  that 


26  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

the  apostle's  exhortation  comes  to  them  with  any 
thing  like  an  imperative  obligation  personally  to 
rejoice.  Hence  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  notion 
has  obtained  among  the  irreligious  that  Christians 
are  gloomy ;  and  now,  if  we  would  wipe  off  from 
piety  this  aspersion,  we  must  put  on  a  new  aspect, 
and  give  vent  to  our  religious  feelings  in  songs  of 
praise  and  thanksgiving.  But  mark,  Christian 
reader,  we  are  not  in  favor  of  a  forced  or  artificial 
joy.  If  our  joy  is  in  God,  and  is  the  natural  efflux 
of  pious  emotion,  it  will  then  give  a  right  impres- 
sion, and  be  admitted  to  come  from  a  divine  source. 
It  appears  evident  that  piety,  to  have  its  full 
effect  upon  the  world,  must  come  forth  to  the  eyes 
of  men  with  more  of  its  joyous  spirit.  By  this  we 
do  not  mean  that  it  must  relax  one  iota  of  its  strict- 
ness, nor  subtract  one  particle  from  the  weight  of 
that  cross  which  it  imposes.  It  is  not  our  aim  to 
exchange  its  cheerfulness  for  levity,  nor  its  absti- 
nence from  worldly  gayeties  for  a  participation  in 
them.  Its  joy  then  would  not  surely  be  in  God. 
But  we  intend  to  urge  the  importance  of  having 
the  soul  so  imbued  with  the  love  of  God  and  man, 
^o  settled  in  its  own  confidence  of  salvation,  so 
full  of  heavenly  hopes  and  anticipations,  so  dead 
to  the  world  and  so  independent  of  its  delights,  that 
it  shall  wear  something  of  a  celestial  air,  and  im- 
press men  with  both  the  reality  and  the  purity  of 


JOY  OF  TRUE  PIETY.  27 

its  joy.  In  our  day  it  seems,  alas,  as  if  this  bright 
feature  was  but  seldom  fully  developed.  Where  is 
to  be  found  the  happy  Christian?  Where  is  the 
soul  whose  devotions  partake  more  of  the  rapturous 
than  the  complaining  spirit  ?  On  whose  face  now 
beams  the  smile  of  gladness  ?  Who  lives  so  near 
to  heaven's  bright  regions  as  to  have  his  features 
gilded  with  its  reflected  glories  ?  Surely  religion 
is  designed,  and  has  the  power  thus  to  irradiate 
every  soul  on  whom  her  influence  falls.  She  comes 
from  heaven,  the  region  of  felicity,  to  conduct  the 
soul  out  of  these  "  dismal  deeps  and  dangerous 
snares,"  to  fill  it  with  joy  unspeakable,  and  to  guide 
it  where  no  sorrows  can  ever  be  experienced.  Who 
then  should  wear  a  brighter  countenance  than  the 
Christian  ?  Who  has  a  right  to  sing  such  exulting 
strains,  or  to  indulge  in  such  glorious  anticipations  ? 
With  all  due  allowance  for  the  varying  tempera- 
ments of  the  pious,  we  still  think  that  there  is  less 
Christian  joy  than  the  Bible  warrants  and  even 
commands. 

Look  at  the  example  of  the  apostle  Paul,  who, 
though  pressed  with  more  care  and  encompassed 
with  more  infirmities  than  any  of  his  pious  col- 
leagues, exhibited  this  joyous  spirit  throughout  his 
whole  Christian  course.  I  will  challenge  the  gayest 
child  of  vanity  to  a  comparison  with  him.  Yiew 
him  when  and  where  you  will,  he  is  the  same  buoy- 


28  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

ant  and  happy  saint,  whose  deep,  ardent  piety,  like 
a  talisman,  doubles  every  joy,  and  converts  even 
the  occasions  of  sorrow  into  seasons  of  spiritual  tri- 
umph. "  Rejoicing  in  tribulation"  was  one  of  his 
m ottos.  What  says  earth's  votary  to  this  ?  The 
worldling  can  be  happy  when  all  goes  well  with 
him.  He  can  exult  amid  the  prosperities  of  life  ; 
but  cast  him  with  the  apostle  into  Philippi's  dun- 
geon, or  place  him  at  Nero's  bloody  tribunal,  and 
see  if  his  joy  will  hold  out  there. 

Piety  has  other  signal  triumphs  to  name.  We 
may,  even  in  our  day,  point  to  a  Legh  Richmond, 
whose  soul  for  the  most  part  sent  forth  notes  "cheer- 
ful as  the  bird  of  morning ;"  or  to  Hannah  More, 
whose  natural  gayety  of  temper,  sanctified  by  emi- 
nent piety,  diffused  around  her  a  most  attractive 
charm.  Her  example,  were  there  no  other,  should 
wipe  away  for  ever  two  very  unjust  charges  some- 
times brought  against  piety,  namely,  that  it  influ- 
ences only  weak  minds,  and  overshadows  the  soul 
with  gloom  and  despondency. 


PIOUS  JOY  ENJOINED.  29 

CHAPTER   V. 

PIOUS  JOY  ENJOINED  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

As  the  writer  is  addressing  principally  professing 
Christians,  it  is  proper  to  inquire  of  them  if  they 
have  ever  considered  the  numerous  calls  and  com- 
mands from  Scripture  to  the  exercise  of  pious  joy  ? 
It  must  have  occurred  to  every  reader  of  the  Bible 
how  often  this  duty  is  inculcated ;  and  it  must  have 
rather  puzzled  him  to  find  among  all  his  Christian 
acquaintance  so  partial  a  compliance. 

In  its  very  name,  the  religion  of  the  gospel  is 
good  tidings  of  great  joy.  All  its  promises  and 
prospects  are  gladdening  to  the  soul.  Every  fea- 
ture is  radiant  with  heaven's  brightness.  The 
highly  figurative  descriptions  of  it  given  us  in  scrip- 
ture all  represent  its  joyous  tendency.  It  is  a  foun- 
tain opened  for  the  way-worn  and  thirsty  traveller, 
and  mercy's  angel  seems  to  stand  at  its  brink,  cry- 
ing, "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the 
waters."  Nor  is  this  fountain  unsealed  merely  to 
refresh  the  soul,  it  is  also  designed  as  a  healing 
stream.  Judah  and  Jerusalem  are  invited  to  come 
and  wash  away  their  pollution  in  its  purifying  flood. 
How  strongly  speak  these  figures  of  the  joyous  char- 
acter of  the  gospel.  Fully  to  appreciate  them,  we 


30  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

must  go  pitch  our  tent  with  the  Arab  in  the  desert, 
whose  parched  lips  have  just  touched  the  long- 
sought  stream ;  or  creep  with  the  half-decayed 
leper  to  the  pool  of  Bethesda,  where  his  foul  dis- 
order can  be  healed. 

It  is  called  "the  day-spring  from  on  high,"  than 
which  no  symbol  could  be  more  lovely  or  cheering. 
It  is  termed  the  "light  to  them  that  sit  in  dark- 
ness ;"  it  is  the  "  opening  of  the  prison  doors  to 
them  that  are  bound."  It  is  "  life  from  the  dead.'1 
It  is  "joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  How 
rich  is  the  Scripture  in  imagery  setting  forth  the 
gladdening  influence  of  piety.  It  is  natural,  then, 
to  look  for  this  effect,  wherever  it  is  experienced; 
and  it  is  no  forced  inference  to  say,  that  all  these 
figures  imply,  if  they  do  not  enjoin,  the  exercise  of 
pious  joy. 

I  have  alluded  to  Paul  as  a  fine  specimen  of  the 
uniformly  cheerful  saint.  I  will  join  with  him  one 
whose  experience  was  not  perhaps  so  uniform,  but 
whose  pious  joys  rose  occasionally,  if  not  constantly, 
quite  as  high.  I  mean  the  psalmist  David.  There 
may  have  been  something  in  the  temperament  of 
David,  on  which  religion  acted  with  a  peculiar  and 
impressive  gracefulness.  Judging  from  the  account 
given  us  of  his  early  life,  we  should  very  naturally 
conclude  this  to  be  the  case.  How  lovely  is  his 
deportment  when  first  introduced  to  the  notice,  and 


PIOUS  JOY  ENJOINED.  31 

taken  under  the  patronage  of  Saul.  What  strength 
of  affection  did  he  manifest  towards  Jonathan  !  He 
had  evidently,  too,  a  soul  attuned  to  the  contempla- 
tion of  nature.  He  was  trained  amid  her  glorious 
works,  and  learned  to  sing,  with  a  poet's  exulta- 
tion, of  her  heauties  and  her  wonders.  But  all 
these  traits,  which  nature  had  so  amply  supplied 
and  adjusted,  were  sanctified  by  religion,  and  were 
wholly  enlisted  in  her  service.  From  such  a  one, 
I  admit,  we  might  expect  a  more  than  ordinary 
amount  of  Christian  cheerfulness.  If  we  judge  his 
emotions  hy  the  devotional  strains  which  he  has 
indited,  we  shall  say  that  he  excels  all  others  in 
the  rapturous  and  even  sublime  joy  which,  for  the 
most  part,  he  evinces.  "  My  soul  shall  make  her 
boast  in  the  Lord  :  the  humble  shall  hear  thereof 
and  be  glad.  0,  magnify  the  Lord  with  me,  and 
let  us  exalt  his  name  together."  "  I  will  rejoice  in 
thy  salvation."  Nor  was  he  satisfied  with  express- 
ing in  such  elevated  strains  his  oivn  gladness  of 
heart,  but  he  calls  upon  others  to  join  in  this  de- 
lightful work.  "  Rejoice  in  the  Lord,  0  ye  right- 
eous, for  praise  is  comely  for  the  upright."  "  Let 
them  that  love  thy  name  be  joyful  in  thee."  "  Let 
the  children  of  Zion  be  joyful  in  their  King."  And 
when  he  has  enlisted  the  voice  and  tongue  of  Zion's 
children,  he  next  invokes  inanimate  nature  to  unite 
in  the  general  concert  of  praise.  "  Let  the  sea 


32  WHO  ARE  THE    HAPPY? 

roar,  and  the  fulness  thereof;  the  world,  and  they 
that  dwell  therein.  Let  the  floods  clap  their 
hands  :  let  the  hills  be  joyful  together  before  the 
Lord." 

It  is  true,  a  plaintive  and  sometimes  even  a 
deeply  desponding  tone  is  exhibited  in  the  Psalms, 
but  the  general  tenor  is  that  of  confidence  and  of 
joy.  Even  where,  in  some  instances,  the  writer 
commences  in  a  mournful  strain,  ere  his  song  is 
ended  the  sentiment  changes  to  one  of  heavenly 
rapture. 

With  respect  to  David  it  may  then  be  said,  he 
lived,  for  the  most  part,  in  a  happy  frame  ;  and 
that  his  joy  was  derived  from,  and  was  connected 
with  the  love  and  service  of  God. 

Other  instances  of  a  uniformly  joyful  frame 
might  be  gathered  from  scripture,  and  also  from 
among  Christians  in  modern  times  ;  but  I  would 
ask  the  reader  to  look  at  a  few  passages  of  the 
Bible  setting  forth  the  duty  of  manifesting  a  cheer- 
ful, happy  temper,  as  the  legitimate  effect  of  true 
piety. 

The  Scriptures  are  so  full  of  exhortations  of  this 
nature  that  I  scarcely  know  where  to  select.  In 
the  book  of  Chronicles,  Israel  is  commanded  to 
"  glory  in  God's  holy  name;"  and  it  is  added,  "  let 
the  heart  of  them  rejoice  that  seek  the  Lord."  In 
Deuteronomy  it  is  said,  "  Ye  shall  rejoice  before 


PIOUS  JOY  ENJOINED.  33 

the  Lord  your  God."  Says  the  prophet  Joel,  "  Ye 
children  of  Zion,  rejoice  in  the  Lord."  Paul  has 
numerous  exhortations  to  rejoice.  In  closing  his 
epistle  to  the  Philippians  he  says,  "  Finally,  my 
brethren,  rejoice  in  the  Lord."  "  Rejoice  in  the 
Lord  always  ;  and  again  I  say,  Rejoice." 

These  examples  and  quotations  make  it  plain 
that  the  truly  pious  are  not  only  authorized  to  put 
on  the  air  of  gladness,  but  are  required  as  the  re- 
deemed of  the  Lord  to  manifest  this  spirit  before 
the  world.  Every  thing  in  the  visible  universe 
calls  the  Christian  to  this  duty.  Nature,  by  audible 
and  inaudible  strains,  should  provoke  us  to  the 
manifestation  of  our  joy.  The  flower  that  has 
slept  beneath  the  dews  of  the  night  lifts  up  its 
head  and  seems  to  smile  as  the  sunbeam  of  morn- 
ing falls  upon  it.  The  sky  is  bright  and  joyous 
after  the  dark  cloud  has  rolled  away,  and  count- 
less voices  come  to  us  from  earth  and  air,  whose 
cheerful  accents  tell  us  that  if  their  joy  be  transient 
it  is  nevertheless  sincere.  Now,  shall  the  Chris- 
tian, whose  soul  has  wept  sweeter  tears  than  the 
dews  of  the  night,  and  has  been  enlivened  by  a 
brighter  beam  than  the  morning  ray,  shall  he  refuse 
to  look  glad  ?  Shall  he  from  whose  prospects  the 
dark  cloud  of  God's  anger  has  passed  away  for  ever, 
give  no  sign  of  joy  fulness  ;  nor,  while  listening 
with  the  ear  of  faith  to  the  melodies  of  heaven,  in 

Who  are  Happy  t  3 


34  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPYT 

which  he  hopes  soon  to  unite,  hegin  the  hallelujahs 
on  this  side  of  his  eternal  rest  ?  Shall  the  power 
of  God  awaken  in  the  natural  world  such  strains 
of  joy ;  and  shall  this  great  merey  he  less  influen- 
tial in  rilling  the  soul  which  it  has  blessed  with 
the  praises  of  its  God  ? 


FOUNDATION  OF  PIOUS  JOY.  35 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  FOUNDATION  OF  PIOUS  JOY. 

EVERY  effect  has  its  cause  ;  and  this  principle  is 
as  applicable  to  the  emotions  of  the  soul  as  to  the 
phenomena  of  the  material  world.  If  there  be 
exercised  a  pious  joy,  it  must  have  some  source  or 
origin.  The  apostle  Paul  has  referred  it  to  the  true 
and  legitimate  cause.  He  says,  "  Rejoice  in  the 
LORD."  The  foundation,  then,  of  pious  joy  is  GOD, 
the  infinite  source  of  all  true  felicity.  The  numer- 
ous passages  of  Scripture  already  cited,  especially 
those  from  the  psalmist,  evince  the  same  truth. 
"  Rejoice  in  the  LORD,  ye  righteous,  and  give  thanks 
at  the  remembrance  of  his  holiness." 

Pious  joy  is  not  confined  to  the  redeemed  chil- 
dren of  Adam,  but  is  felt  and  manifested  by  all  the 
holy.  The  good  angels  are  no  less  exultant  than 
the  ransomed,  who  are  associated  with  them  in 
singing  the  hallelujahs  of  heaven.  But  the  source 
of  this  gladness,  both  among  angels  and  men,  is  the 
same.  It  is  the  great  and  glorious  God. 

When  Adam  was  created,  and  placed  a  pure 
being  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  we  may  suppose  that 
as  one  of  his  first  acts  would  be  holy  praise,  so  one 
of  his  first  emotions  would  be  pious  joy.  But  if  we 


36  WHO  ARE   THE  HAPPY? 

imagine  that  his  joy  came  simply  or  principally 
from  the  fragrant  beauties  which  surrounded  him, 
we  are  greatly  mistaken.  Such  a  conception  would 
not  he  in  harmony  with  the  character  of  God  his 
Creator,  nor  with  the  exalted  and  unsullied  char- 
acter of  Adam.  His  outward  circumstances  en- 
hanced, doubtless,  his  happiness;  hut  this  effect 
they  had  as  media,  through  which  to  trace  the  wis- 
dom and  goodness  of  God.  We  should  infer  from 
the  scripture  account  of  our  first  parents,  that 
while  their  occupation  was  to  dress  and  to  keep 
this  earthly  paradise,  their  purest  and  noblest  satis- 
faction consisted  in  intimate  communion  with  God. 
Earth  was  then  but  one  form  of  heaven,  adapted 
indeed  to  the  compound  nature  of  man,  but  varying 
not  from  heaven  in  the  essentials  of  its  happiness, 
nor  obstructing  as  now  a  free  and  familiar  inter- 
course with  Jehovah.  Hence,  we  find  the  Almighty 
conversing  with  Adam  as  one  converses  with  his 
friend ;  giving  out  his  commands,  promising  his 
favors,  and  affording  the  blissful  light  of  his  coun- 
tenance. "  In  the  cool  of  the  day,"  by  some  pal- 
pable manifestation  he  made  himself  known  to  his 
new-created  subjects,  and  filled  their  souls  with 
"joy  unspeakable."  It  was  doubtless  to  this  glad 
hour  that  our  first  parents  daily  looked  with  most 
delightful  anticipations,  and  in  it  felt  their  purest 
rapture.  But  Eden  was  no  longer  bright  or  beau- 


FOUNDATION  OF  PIOUS  JOY.  37 

tiful  when  that  hour  became  a  season  of  dread, 
and  the  guilty  pair  shrunk  from  the  well-known 
footsteps  of  their  Creator.  Their  greatest  happi- 
ness 'before  their  fall,  was  in  God  ;  and  their  keenest 
misery  after  it,  was,  that  they  had  "  forsaken  the 
fountain  of  living  waters."  Milton  has  put  into 
the  mouth  of  our  maternal  progenitor  a  very  beau- 
tiful and  touching  lamentation  over  her  lost  para- 
dise. The  poet,  in  this,  has  spoken  the  voice  of 
nature  ;  but  it  is,  alas,  the  voice  of  fallen  nature, 
which  is  prone  to  be  more  touched  by  a  deprivation 
of  the  gift  than  by  any  deep  sense  of  the  forfeited 
favor  of  the  great  Giver. 

Since  that  sad  event  which  drove  man  away 
from  his  Maker,  we  have  been  striving  to  substi- 
tute some  other  foundation  of  felicity;  but  never 
can  true  and  substantial  joy  revisit  the  soul,  until 
that  soul  regains  its  primitive  portion,  and  finds  its 
all  in  GOD. 

The  remedial  system  which  the  gospel  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  presents,  has  in.  view  this  very 
object :  the  restoration  of  the  divine  favor,  whereby 
a  permanent  foundation  is  laid  for  human  felicity. 
It  is  true,  this  blessed  gospel  does  not  propose  to 
replant  literally  another  Eden,  and  to  embower 
believers  among  its  amaranthine  shades ;  but  it 
does  what  is  infinitely  better,  it  places  under  the 
soul  the  original  foundation  of  its  joy;  and  by 


38  WHO  ARE   THE    HAPPY? 

reclaiming  it  to  God,  gives  it  the  promise  and  the 
prospect  of  a  brighter  paradise  above.  And  now 
we  may  walk  again  with  our  Maker  "  in  the  cool 
of  the  day,"  in  the  evening  hour  of  meditation,  or 
at  any  time  which  the  soul  may  choose,  and  feel 
as  real,  if  not  as  exuberant  a  joy  as  glowed  in  the 
hearts  of  Eden's  unfallen  occupants.  We  may  now 
cast  our  eyes  over  the  Creator's  works,  which,  if 
disrobed  of  primeval  loveliness,  are  still  his  works, 
and  retain  the  signature  of  his  hand  in  all  their 
outspread  beauties  and  sublimities.  We  may  sur- 
vey these  wonders,  and  rejoice  in  them  as  the 
manifest  indications  of  his  godhead.  We  are  in- 
vited to  come  back  from  our  unsatisfied  wanderings, 
and  to  rebuild  on  the  original  foundation  of  all  true 
joy  and  felicity.  Ever  since  Adam  was  cast  out  of 
the  consecrated  garden,  man  has  not  known  where 
to  go  for  this  pure  and  substantial  joy.  How  many 
streams  have  been  tasted  in  the  hope  of  finding 
it ;  how  many  countries  have  been  explored  ;  what 
a  variety  of  pleasures  have  been  pursued !  But 
man  is  driven  from  the  presence  of  God.  This  is 
the  true  secret  of  all  his  cares  and  sorrows.  This 
explains  the  failure  of  his  ten  thousand  experi- 
ments. Until  he  gets  back  to  the  presence  of  his 
God  he  has  no  right  to  rejoice,  and  he  has  in  fact 
no  true  foundation  for  joy.  But  Oh,  what  glad 
tidings  are  these  that  fall  on  the  ear !  Methinks  I 


FOUNDATION  OF  PIOUS  JOY.  39 

hear  again  the  renewed  congratulations  of  the  angel 
band,  assuring  us  that  "  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord 
from  heaven,"  has  come  to  conduct  us  back  to  our 
forfeited  paradise  ;  or  rather  to  reopen  the  celestial 
Eden,  and  acquire  for  us  a  title  to  its  imperishable 
glories.  Now  God  will  dwell  again  on  earth,  and 
the  soul  may  find  in  him  the  broad  foundation  of 
peace  and  happiness.  And  who  is  this  that  turns 
aside  th^  cherubic  sword  and  allows  us  to  pluck 
the  immortal  fruits,  and  breathe  once  more  the 
atmosphere  of  heaven  ?  To  whom  are  we  so  deeply 
indebted  for  the  restoration  of  our  joy  ?  Ah,  reader, 
if  you  have  never  known  this  Friend  of  the  help- 
less, this  almighty  Saviour,  you  cannot  know  what 
pure  and  perfect  pleasure  is.  You  have  not  yet 
touched  the  vital  spring  of  human  felicity.  But  if 
you  know  this  Saviour,  and  feel  him  to  be  precious 
to  your  soul,  you  have  found  your  way  to  the  well- 
spring  of  life,  and  can  "  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the 
glory  of  God," 

"  Dearer,  far  dearer  to  my  heart, 

Than  all  the  joys  that  earth  can  give; 
From  fame,  from  health,  from  friends  I'd  part, 
Beneath  His  countenance  to  live," 


40  WHO  ARE   THE  HAPPY? 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  JOY  OF  BELIEVING-  IN  GOD. 

SINCE  the  joy  of  the  Christian  has  its  foundation 
in  God,  the  reader's  attention  may  very  properly 
be  directed  to  some  particular  aspects  in  which 
this  position  is  illustrated. 

The  first  which  shall  be  noticed  is  a  very  simple 
one — the  habitual  and  practical  conviction  of  the 
divine  existence.  I  am  not  disposed,  in  these  pages, 
to  enter  into  any  formal  argument  against  atheism, 
but  would  remark  simply,  that  while  the  avowed 
atheist  is  rarely  to  be  met  with,  there  is,  among 
many  who  style  themselves  Christians,  a  vast  deal 
of  practical  atheism. 

The  effect,  in  this  latter  case,  on  the  happiness 
of  man,  is  very  little  less  than  where  the  disbelief 
of  a  God  is  openly  avowed.  If  the  soul  is  wholly 
absorbed  from  day  to  day,  for  a  series  of  years,  in 
the  mere  business  or  pleasures  of  the  world,  it  is 
leading,  so  far,  an  atheistical  life.  The  fact  that 
no  profession  of  this  monstrous  doctrine  is  made, 
abates  but  in  a  small  degree  the  influence  which 
the  practice  of  it  exerts  over  the  moral  affections. 
There  is  indeed  this  point  of  difference  :  in  the  one 
case  the  individual  feels  but  little  check  upon  an 
unrestrained  indulgence  of  the  evil  passions,  while 


JOY  OF   BELIEVING  IN  GOD.  41 

in  the  other  there  is  the  power  of  conscience  strength- 
ening its  rebukes  by  a  vague  impression  of  future 
retribution. 

Now  we  admit,  that  until  the  soul  can  have 
some  reasonable  hope  that  God  is  its  friend  and 
portion,  the  habitual  conviction  of  the  divine  exist- 
ence can  hardly  be  supposed  to  produce  pleasure, 
much  less  joy.  If  the  individual  is  conscious  that 
his  course  of  conduct  is  such  as  God  would  not 
approve  ;  or  if  his  desires  are  such  as  he  is  unwill- 
ing to  lay  before  the  omniscient  eye,  it  must  be 
evident,  that  instead  of  finding  in  the  idea  of  God's 
eternal  existence  any  thing  agreeable,  it  is  the 
source  of  much  disquiet  and  alarm.  Hence  it  is 
said  of  such  in  the  Scriptures,  that  "  they  desire  not 
the  knowledge  of  his  ways." 

But  while  the  idea  of  God  is  shut  out  intention- 
ally from  the  minds  of  those  who  may  be  termed 
practical  atheists,  whose  attention  is  confined  to 
the  gifts,  while  it  is  impiously  withdrawn  from  the 
Giver,  the  pious  soul  delights  in  the  very  thought 
of  God,  and  finds  in  this  grand  fundamental  fact  a 
substantial  foundation  of  joy. 

The  conception  of  God,  inadequate  as  it  must  of 
course  be,  even  where  the  Bible  has  taught  it,  and 
the  Spirit  has  cleared  the  "  mental  ray,"  is  never- 
theless one  so  well  adapted  to  the  soul's  nature  and 
desires,  that  it  produces  a  powerful  augmentation 


42  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

of  its  happiness.  This,  I  repeat,  is  the  case  only 
where  the  soul  has  some  reasonable  hope  that  the 
great  Creator  has  become  reconciled  to  it  through 
Jesus  Christ.  The  truly  pious,  therefore,  have,  in 
the  habitual  conviction  of  the-  divine  existence,  a 
sublime  and  glorious  conception  lying  before  the 
mind  at  all  times,  and  operating  upon  its  powers 
to  enlarge  them,  and  upon  its  desires  to  purify  and 
ennoble  them.  Here  is  an  advantage  in  favor  of 
piety  which  is  not  often  contemplated.  Other  men 
may  talk  of  their  belief  in  God,  but  so  long  as  they 
aim  to  keep  this  grand  idea  away  from  their  thoughts, 
it  does  not  exert  even  its  natural  effect  to  enlarge 
and  ennoble  the  powers.  The  Christian  is  in  the 
daily  contemplation  of  this  fact.-  The  grand  con- 
ception is  operating  perpetually,  and  must  hence 
give  dignity  and  compass  to  the  soul's  faculties, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  moral  affections  are 
awakened  and  purified. 

Every  pious  man  delights  in  the  idea  of  the 
divine  existence.  It  not  only  enlarges  but  rejoices 
his  heart.  There  is  the  accompanying  conviction 
that  God  is  his  portion,  his  father,  and  his  friend. 
This  filial  spirit  abates  the  overpowering  impression 
which  so  great  a  truth  would  otherwise  exert,  and 
enables  him  to  mingle  holy  love  with  reverential 
fear.  It  is  with  the  good  man  an  habitual,  pervad- 
ing impression.  God  is  "  in  all  his  thoughts." 


JOY  OF  BELIEVING  IN  GOD.  43 

The  universe  is  to  him  illuminated  with  the  divine 
presence.  He  has  lifted  his  contemplations  above 
the  region  where  they  used  to  dwell,  and  finds 
himself  searching  for  God  in  every  event  of  life, 
and  marking  his  footsteps  in  all  the  changes  which 
take  place  in  this  mutable  sphere.  Who  cannot 
see  that  such  a  thought  must  necessarily  afford  a 
ground  of  exultation  to  the  Christian  ?  Let  any 
mind  now  buried  amid  earth's  low  cares  and  pleas- 
ures, making  all  its  calculations  and  laying  all 
its  plans  without  a  recognition  of  God,  or  even  a 
thought  of  his  presence  and  government — let  this 
mind  come  fully  and  habitually  under  the  belief  of 
a  God,  and  begin  to  acknowledge  him  in  all  its 
ways,  what  a  calm  confidence  will  at  once  over- 
spread it,  and  how  soon  will  it  evince  a  dignity  to 
which  it  was  before  a  stranger.  There  is  some- 
thing sublime  in  the  idea  of  an  ever-present,  all- 
pervading  God.  It  gives  the  soul  that  holds  it  a 
stability  which  no  vicissitudes  of  earth  can  under- 
mine. It  plants  the  feet  upon  a  rock.  It  enables 
the  devout  man  to  sing  and  to  rejoice  even  when 
the  prospect  is  appalling.  He  goes  forth,  too, 
among  the  works  of  this  great  Creator,  and  holds 
converse  with  every  thing  which  God  has  made. 
Every  such  object  has  a  tongue  and  a  voice  which 
ministers  instruction  to  the  soul.  Where  the  poet 
sees  only  some  fine  combination  in  nature,  he  adds 


44  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

to  it  the  vital  breathings  of  the  present  and  glo- 
rious God.  While  the  philosopher  exults  in  the 
newly  discovered  analysis,  the  Christian  says,  "  Here 
is  the  finger  of  God."  Multitudes,  "with  brute, 
unconscious  gaze,"  are  dwelling  only  on  the  in- 
trinsic value  of  nature's  gifts  :  the  contemplative 
Christian  adds  a  new  and  moral  charm  by  con- 
necting them  with  that  hand  which  "  openeth  to 
satisfy  the  desire  of  every  living  thing."  Is  there 
no  advantage  in  all  this  ?  Has  not  the  pious  soul 
a  greater  and  more  sublime  source  of  joy  than  those 
grovelling  minds  who,  while  they  deny  not  the 
being  of  God  in  words,  do  practically  eject  him 
from  their  thoughts.  Atheistical  conduct  may  exist 
where  an  atheistical  creed  is  not  adopted ;  but  to 
have  a  full  perennial  fountain  of  joy,  we  must  have 
the  habitual  conviction  that  there  is  a  God,  that 
he  is  ever-present,  and  that  he  is  our  friend  and 
portion. 


JOY  IN  GOD'S  CHARACTER.  45 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

PIOUS  JOY  CONNECTED  WITH  PROPER  CONCEPTIONS 
OF  THE  DIVINE  CHARACTER. 

THE  good  man  rejoices,  not  only  in  the  existence 
of  God,  but  in  his  character  as  revealed  in  the 
Bible.  Taught  by  the  Holy  Spirit  through  the 
medium  of  divine  truth,  his  views  of  the  Creator, 
though  inadequate,  are  nevertheless  correct. 

We  may  believe  in  a  supreme  Being,  and  yet  so 
wide  from  the  truth  may  be  our  views  of  his  nature, 
attributes,  and  government,  that  the  contemplation 
of  him  shall  produce  horror  and  dismay  rather  than 
pleasure.  Such  unworthy  impressions  of  God  arc 
actually  entertained  in  countries  where  the  light  of 
revelation  is  not  enjoyed.  The  thought  of  God 
carries  only  terror  to  the  soul,  and  his  worshippers 
are  employed  in  deprecating  his  anger  rather  than 
in  supplicating  his  favor.  The  loveliest  trait  of  the 
divine  character — if  it  be  not  irreverent  to  institute 
a  comparison — his  beneficence,  is  unknown,  and  he 
is  considered  as  more  disposed  to  injure  than  to  bless 
his  creatures. 

And  even  where  men  may  know  the  true  char- 
acter of  God — where  the  Bible  and  the  Sabbath 
and  the  sanctuary  exist — very  incorrect  and  un- 


46  WHO  ARE  THE.  HAPPY? 

worthy  notions  of  him  are  entertained.  Those  "  who 
obey  not  the  gospel,  know  not  God."  "With  the 
means  of  informing  themselves  abundantly  within 
their  reach,  tjiey  prefer  to  remain  in  ignorance ;  and 
all  the  impressions  which  they  obtain  of  his  char- 
acter, are  such  as  come  rather  by  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstances than  by  any  prayerful  and  diligent  study 
of  his  word. 

The  impenitent  sinner,  even  when  contemplating 
God,  takes  but  a  partial  view  of  his  character.  Find- 
ing that  he  has  levelled  his  denunciations  against 
sin,  and  made  ready  his  arrow  against  the  workers 
of  iniquity,  he  is  led  to  view  him  only  as  a  God  of 
vengeance,  and  like  the  heathen,  to  associate  with 
him  the  idea  of  malignity  rather  than  benevolence. 
Hence,  he  is  surprised  that  a  Christian  can  have 
any  joy  in  the  contemplation  of  the  Deity;  and 
hence  also,  he  strives  to  shu.t  out  the  thought  of  God 
from  his  own  mind.  But  here  is  clearly  a  very 
partial  and  incorrect  notion  of  the  Creator. 

It  is  true  that  God  will  punish  the  workers  of 
iniquity  who  do  not  repent  and  trust  for  salvation 
in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ ;  but  is  this  any  objection 
to  his  character  ?  Would  you  allege  as  an  unworthy 
trait  against  a  civil  magistrate,  that  he  caused  the 
laws  to  be  respected,  and  for  their  violation  pun- 
ished the  delinquent  ?  It  might  be  shown  that,  on 
the  principles  of  the  strictest  benevolence,  it  would 


JOY  IN  GOD'S  CHARACTER.  47 

be  necessary  for  God  to  do  in  this  respect  ]ust  as  he 
has  done.  Now,  what  the  unreflecting  sinner  calls 
severity  in  God,  the  Christian  views  as  the  essen- 
tial and  all-important  attribute  of  justice  ;  and  so 
far  from  objecting  to  its  existence  or  its  exercise, 
he  looks  upon  it  as  the  pledge  of  security  to  the 
moral  interests  of  the  universe.  He  can  and  does 
rejoice  in  God  as  holy  and  just,  as  well  as  good. 

The  views  entertained  of  the  divine  beneficence 
by  those  who  are  not  taught  of  God,  are  often  very 
incorrect  and  unscriptural.  Some  make  it  wholly 
indiscriminate,  alleging  that  it  covers  all  the  sins 
of  all  mankind,  and  in  its  ultimate  action  makes  no 
difference  "  between  him  that  serveth  God  and  him 
that  serveth  him  not."  To  exalt  this  trait,  they 
merge  another  equally  important,  his  justice.  This 
is  evidently  a  very  distorted  and  erroneous  view  of 
the  divine  character.  Some  can  see  no  goodness 
in  God  unless  he  heaps  favors  on  themselves.  The 
measure  of  his  blessings  to  them  is  the  rule  by 
which  they  judge  of  the  gracious  acts  of  their  Cre- 
ator ;  not  reflecting  that  according  to  the  Bible,  he 
may  after  all  be  giving  them  their  good  things  only 
in  this  life. 

How  much  more  comprehensive,  as  well  as  cor- 
rect and  scriptural,  are  the  views  of  the  pious  soul. 
His  Bible  teaches  him  that  God  is  good,  and  that 
he  doeth  good,  and  that  "  his  tender  mercies  are 


48  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

over  aJ  his  works. "  He  views  him  as  benevolent, 
and  as  exerting  his  benevolence  to  make  his  crea- 
tures happy,  yet  not  at  the  sacrifice  of  his  justice 
and  his  truth.  He  considers  the  divine  Being  as 
acting  on  a  great  and  comprehensive  plan,  in  which. 
though  temporal  favors  are  given  to  men  with  ap- 
parent disregard  to  their  moral  character,  yet  all 
things  are  working  together  for  the  good  of  the 
pious ;  while  even  temporal  blessings  are  often  so 
perverted  and  abused  by  the  wicked,  that  they  be- 
come at  last  the  witnesses  of  God  against  them. 
To  the  eye  of  a  Christian,  God  sits  regent  over  all 
the  universe,  and  conducts  the  affairs  of  his  mighty 
empire  with  a  view  to  promote  his  own  glory.  It 
is  this  enlarged  conception  which  enables  the  Chris- 
tian to  exult  in  the  fact,  that  "  the  Lord  God  on> 
nipotent  reigneth."  Sovereignty  is  a  glorious  attri- 
bute of  God.  Wisdom  to  devise  the  best  plans,  and 
power  omnipotent  to  secure  their  accomplishment, 
and  this  too  without  destroying  the  accountability 
of  man,  or  lessening  his  dependence  on  divine  aid, 
are  the  grand  and  mysterious  features  of  that  govern- 
ment instituted  and  administered  by  the  Eternal 
One.  Is  there  here  no  room  for  joy  ?  Has  the  soul 
no  solid  basis  for  praises  in  all  this  ?  Have  not 
these  views  a  direct  tendency  to  establish  the  heart 
in  confidence,  to  make  it  feel  that  the  temporary 
obstructions  to  the  triumph  of  truth  and  virtue 


JOY  IN  GOD'S  CHARACTER  49 

will  only,  in  the  end,  and  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
God,  make  that  triumph  the  more  complete  and 
glorious  ? 

To  rejoice  in  God,  we  must  view  his  character  as 
it  is  revealed  in  his  holy  word — we  must  have 
affections  in  unison  with  it — we  must  feel  that 
inward  approbation  and  submission  and  love  which 
result  from  the  renewal  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and 
then,  not  only  shall  we  entertain  right  views  of 
God,  but  the  conception  will  act  on  the  soul  with 
a  cheering,  as  well  as  a  sanctifying  influence. 


Who  are  Happy  I 


50  WHO  ARE   THE   HAITY  ? 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE  RELATION  OF  PIOUS  JOY  TO  THE  DOCTRINE  OP 
PROVIDENCE. 

THE  Bible  teaches  the  doctrine  of  a  particular 
providence.  "  Not  a  sparrow,"  says  Jesus,  "  shall 
fall  on  the  ground  without  your  Father ;"  and 
"  even  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  num- 
bered." "  The  steps  of  a  good  man,"  says  another, 
11  are  ordered  by  the  Lord."  This  doctrine  is,  by 
the  pious  man,  not  only  believed,  but  practically 
recognized  in  all  the  business  and  events  of  life ; 
and  it  is  this  practical  recognition  alone  that  con- 
stitutes it  a  foundation  of  joy. 

How  many  are  there  who  do  not  sympathize 
in  the  least  with  this  view  of  divine  providence. 
They  are  willing  to  install  the  great  Creator  on  the 
universal  throne,  and  pay  him  the  homage  due  to 
a  distant  and  comparatively  uninterested  monarch 
too  lofty  to  stoop  to  the  affairs  of  men,  and  too 
much  absorbed  in  his  vast  empire  above,  to  inter- 
fere in  the  concerns  of  this  diminutive  sphere. 
Hence,  we  hear  so  much  of  chance,  of  fortune,  of 
second  causes,  and  so  little  of  the  divine  hand,  in 
the  vicissitudes  of  nations  and  of  individuals. 

But  what  say  ye,  who  thus  think  and  act,  to  the 


JOY  IN  GOD'S  PROVIDENCE.  51 

view  which,  our  Saviour  gives  us  ?  The  bird  that 
folds  its  wing  and  falls  to  the  earth,  or  that  is 
arrested  by  the  archer's  arrow  and  drops  bleeding 
to  the  ground,  is  directed  in  its  fall  by  the  hand  of 
God.  Yea,  even  the  hairs  of  our  head,  insignificant 
as  they  may  singly  seem,  are  still  noticed  and  num- 
bered by  the  Almighty.  Not  a  step  that  we  take, 
nor  a  purpose  that  we  accomplish,  do  we  take  or 
accomplish  independent  of  him.  What  say  ye  to 
this  view  of  a  divine  providence  ?  This  is  the  view 
that  brings  God  near  ;  that  acknowledges  his  hand 
in  the  minutest  affairs  of  life,  and  yet  derogates  not 
from  his  dignity  as  the  maker  and  mover  of  the 
spheres.  He  who  lighted  up  the  sun,  formed  the 
moth  that  bathes  its  beauteous  wing  in  the  bright 
sunbeam;  and  that  insect  existence  as  truly  de- 
monstrates the  infinitude  of  his  power,  as  does 
the  great  fountain  of  light  in  whose  radiance  it 
rejoices. 

The  pious  mind  embraces  this  scriptural  doctrine 
of  a  particular  providence,  and  finds  it  both  con- 
solatory and  encouraging.  In  all  that  relates  to 
the  external  world — its  physical  changes,  and  its 
great  moral  and  political  events — the  good  man  is 
busy  in  interpreting  the  will  of  God.  Where  other 
men  are  prying  into  second  causes,  and  noticing 
their  influence  alone,  he  traces  the  finger  of  Provi- 
dence operating  through  these  causes  in  the  pro- 


52  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

duction  of  the  highest  good.  Here,  his  advantage 
must  be  conceded  in  having,  above  others,  his 
heart  fixed  on  the  great  First  Cause,  whose  fiat 
is  the  law  of  the  universe,  and  whose  power,  wis- 
dom, and  goodness,  are  pledges  for  the  rectitude  of 
his  government.  Let  then  the  clouds  rise  ever  so 
dark  and  disastrous ;  "let  the  sea  roar,  and  the 
mountains  shake  with  the  swelling  thereof,"  he 
can  sit  calm  amid  the  scene,  and  sing  of  Him 
who,  though  "  clouds  and  darkness  be  round  about 
him,"  makes  "justice  and  judgment  the  habitation 
of  his  throne." 

But  it  is  in  view  more  especially  of  his  own  pri- 
vate history  that  the  Christian  finds  this  idea  of  a 
particular  providence  so  productive  of  joy.  From 
his  infancy  onward  he  sees  and  acknowledges  the 
hand  of  his  heavenly  Father.  He  turns  back  to 
the  first  page  of  his  earthly  existence,  and  loves  to 
read  a  lesson  of  gratitude  in  the  parents  whose 
affectionate  looks  awakened  the  first  infant  smile. 
He  marks  a  hand  divine  thrown  around  him  during 
the  reckless  period  of  youth,  and  pointing  out  his 
path  as  he  emerged  from  youth  into  manhood. 
Even  disappointments  which,  at  the  time  of  their 
occurrence,  were  so  hard  to  bear,  in  the  retrospect 
he  sees  to  have  been  ordained  from  a  kind  regard 
to  his  real  good.  How  often  is  he  constrained  to 
sing,  in  the  beautiful  lines  of  Addison, 


JOY  IN  GOD'S  PROVIDENCE.  53 

"  When  all  thy  mercies,  0  my  God, 

My  rising  soul  surveys, 
Transported  with  the  view,  I'm  lost 
In  wonder,  love,  and  praise. 

"  Thy  providence  my  life  sustained, 

And  all  my  wants  redressed, 
When  in  the  silent  womb  I  lay, 
And  hung  upon  the  breast. 

"  To  all  my  weak  complaints  and  cries, 

Thy  mercy  lent  an  ear, 
Ere  yet  my  feeble  thoughts  had  learned 
To  form  themselves  in  prayer. 

"When  in  the  slippery  paths  of  youth 

With  heedless  steps  I  ran, 
Thine  arm  unseen  conveyed  me  safe, 
And  led  me  up  to  man.'7 

It  is  a  practical  impression  of  this  unseen  hand 
moving  in  all  that  happens  to  the  heliever,  admin- 
istering the  cup  of  joy  and  of  affliction,  and  all  for 
his  ultimate  good,  that  throws  over  the  soul  a 
quiet  confidence,  and  enahles  it  in  "  every  situation 
therewith  to  be  content."  His  heavenly  Father  is 
at  the  helm,  and  no  adverse  wind  that  blows,  or 
threatening  waves  that  rise,  can  excite  a  fear  in 
his  trustful  heart.  If  the  wisdom  that  looked  to 
"  the  end  from  the  beginning,"  that  laid  the  plan 
of  the  universe  in  all  its  minute  circumstances,  as 
well  as  its  grand  results,  is  busied  in  shaping  his 


64  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

lot  in  life  ;  and  if  the  power  that  is  omnipotent  is 
also,  under  the  guidance  of  eternal  love,  employed 
in  carrying  out  these  designs — if  this  be  so,  as  he 
firmly  believes,  how  calm  and  thankful,  yea,  even 
joyous,  must  he  his  feelings.  Then  must  every 
blessing  be  viewed  as  from  the  hand  of  God  ;  and 
even  disappointment  be  interpreted  as  an  inexpli- 
cable yet  certain  token  of  the  divine  favor,  which  is 
to  be  overruled  for  the  greater  good  of  the  soul. 
Now  who  can  deny  that  such  a  doctrine  puts  the 
language  of  praise  as  well  as  of  prayer  into  the 
lips,  and  enables  him  who  believes  it  to  "  rejoice  in 
the  Lord  always  ?"  If  the  father  of  a  numerous 
family  is  known  to  be  wise  in  all  his  domestic 
arrangements  ;  exact  in  their  accomplishment ; 
blending  patriarchal  dignity  with  paternal  love  ; 
ever  seeking  the  good  of  his  household  ;  and  con- 
triving a  thousand  affectionate  ways  to  win  their 
confidence  and  increase  their  respect  and  affection  ; 
how  certain  that  such  a  household  will  be  pervaded 
by  a  lovely  and  joyous  spirit.  Even  the  discipline 
of  that  house  will  wear  the  aspect  of  tenderness, 
and  every  inmate  will  be  watching  for  the  return- 
ing smile  upon  the  brow,  as  the  signal  for  a  renewal 
of  their  gladness.  If  domestic  trials  come,  all  will 
turn  their  confident  expectations  to  the  head.  In 
his  wisdom  they  have  a  pledge  that  every  thing 
will  be  done  which  can  be  done  ;  and  in  his  affec- 


JOY  IN  GOD'S  PROVIDENCE.  55 

tion  an  equally  sure  pledge  that  what  is  done  will 
have  a  respect  to  their  interests. 

Now  this  but  faintly  images  the  confidence  in 
God's  providence  which  spreads  such  satisfaction 
and  joy  over  the  soul  of  a  pious  man.  As  one  of  a 
numerous  family,  he  knows  that  while  every  inci- 
dent is  ordered  and  arranged  by  the  great  Head  for 
the  good  of  the  whole,  yet  each  individual's  good  is 
included  in,  and  is  conducive  to  the  good  of  the 
whole.  He  will  therefore  be  ever  deciphering, 
among  the  vicissitudes  of  his  journey,  the  tokens  of 
divine  favor  which  blend  in  with  all  that  he  enjoys 
and  all  that  he  suffers.  In  his  passage  to  the 
eternal  rest,  not  one  inch  will  be  too  thorny,  nor 
one  moment  too  dark.  No  cup  will  be  too  bitter 
when  he  is  convinced  that  his  heavenly  Father 
has  given  it  to  him  to  drink  ;  but  breasting  himself 
against  the  flood  of  evils  which  he  may  be  called  to 
meet,  or  rather  strengthened  by  divine  grace  cheer- 
fully to  bear  what  divine  Providence  has  justly 
assigned,  he  will  go  on  his  way  rejoicing  in  the 
full  belief  that  all  things  will  at  last  work  together 
for  his  good. 


56  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

CHAPTER   X. 

THE  JOY  OF  SALVATION. 

IN  the  remarks  already  made,  it  has  been  implied, 
as  the  reader  will  perceive,  that  he  who  rejoices  in 
God  is  one  who  is  through  divine  mercy  reconciled 
to  him.  In  one  word,  he  is  in  a  state  of  salvation. 
This  new  relation  which  the  soul  sustains  to  its 
Creator  and  Sovereign  is  the  grand  source  of  its 
highest  felicities  ;  and  the  consciousness  of  this 
change,  together  with  the  exercises  which  grow  out 
of  it,  affords  the  most  heartfelt  joy.  This  is  the  joy 
of  salvation. 

It  is  this  great  change,  together  with  the  effects 
of  it  on  the  heart  and  life,  on  the  hopes  and  pros- 
pects, that  distinguishes  the  truly  pious  from  those 
who  are  unconverted.  To  know  what  this  change 
is,  and  properly  to  appreciate  its  benign  effects  in 
the  production  of  human  happiness,  it  is  necessary 
personally  to  experience  it.  "  The  natural  man," 
says  St.  Paul,  "  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God." 

Let  those  then  speak  of  the  blessedness  of  this 
state  who  through  divine  grace  have  enjoyed  it ; 
and  let  none  question  the  truth  of  their  testimony, 
nor  the  sincerity  of  their  professions. 


JOY  OF  SALVATION.  57 

The  very  term  salvation  implies  subject  matter 
for  joy  and  praise.  But  the  depth  of  the  emotion 
must  depend  in  some  degree  on  the  amount  of  evil 
from  which  the  soul  perceives  itself  to  have  been 
rescued.  If  a  man  is  delivered  from  a  state  of 
mere  ignorance,  he  would  naturally  rejoice  in  the 
change.  Now,  if  the  gospel  simply  revealed  a 
clearer  dispensation,  and  unfolded  some  new  moral 
motives — the  only  view,  alas,  which  many  take — it 
would  cause,  in  a  mind  anxious  to  acquire  religious 
knowledge,  a  spring  of  fresh  delight.  But  it  will 
be  seen  that,  in  this  case,  nothing  more  is  conceded 
to  the  gospel  than  an  increase  of  moral  light.  The 
joy,  therefore,  if  real,  cannot  be  so  deep  as  it  will 
be  according  to  another  and  more  scriptural  view 
which  we  present. 

Suppose  the  individual,  in  addition  to  being  in  a 
state  of  ignorance,  to  be  also  in  a  state  of  guilt  and 
condemnation.  He  mourns  not  only  that  he  is  in 
darkness,  but  that  he  is  in  the  "  bonds  of  iniquity." 
He  finds  within  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  a  heart 
of  stone,  a  deep-seated  alienation  from  God,  which, 
according  to  the  principles  of  the  divine  govern- 
ment, renders  him  liable  to  everlasting  death  ;  nay, 
G  od  has  already  actually  passed  upon  him  the  sen- 
tence of  condemnation.  The  individual,  we  say, 
has  a  conviction  of  all  this,  which  mars  every 
earthly  pleasure,  and  fixes  his  thoughts  intensely 


58  WHO  ARE   THE  HAPPY? 

on  his  doom.  It  is  a  conviction  which  saddens  and 
depresses  the  soul,  and  incapacitates  it  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  those  things  which  the  world  covets  and 
esteems.  Now,  mark,  this  is  not  religion,  but  a 
deep  sense  of  the  need  of  it.  The  indiscriminate 
observer  sometimes  confounds  this  anterior  state  of 
anxiety  with  religion.  It  is,  however,  only  convic- 
tion ;  and  we  do  not  pretend  there  is  any  joy  in 
such  a  state  of  mind.  But,  as  the  sun  shines  the 
brighter  when  the  dark  cloud  is  broken,  and  the 
muttering  thunders  are  dying  away  in  the  dis- 
tance, so  the  soul  that  flies  terror-struck  from 
mount  Sinai,  and  comes  in  view  of  Calvary,  re- 
joices the  more  from  the  impressive  contrast  of  its 
emotions. 

It  is  at  the  point  of  transition  that  we  wish  to  con- 
template it ;  when  it  comes  "  out  of  darkness  into 
God's  marvellous  light."  In  proportion  to  the  depth 
of  these  convictions  and  the  evils  which  they  respect 
must  be  the  joy  of  deliverance.  But  who  can  meas- 
ure these  emotions  ;  or  what  mind,  but  that  which 
has  felt  them,  can  understand  the  oppressive  nature 
of  these  convictions  ?  Various  and  striking  are  the 
emblems  used  in  Scripture  to  denote  this  wretched- 
ness from  which  the  sinner  by  the  gospel  salva- 
tion is  delivered.  It  is  called  a  " horrible  pit" — 
a  "  state  of  darkness."  The  soul  is  said  to  be 
"  lost,"  to  be  under  "  condemnation  ;"  a  prisoner  in 


JOY  OF  SALVATION.  59 

fetters  ;  "  dead  in  sin  ;"  "  sold  under  sin."  Such, 
are  some  of  the  scriptural  representations  of  our  old 
state,  in  which  we  are  previous  to  the  great  change 
which  brings  the  joy  of  salvation.  Every  true 
Christian  has  felt  deeply  and  practically  the  truth 
of  these  representations.  He  has  been  bound  under 
the  burden  of  sin.  No  incarcerated  victim  ever 
felt  more  keenly  the  darkness  and  damps  of  his 
dungeon.  No  galley-slave  ever  sighed  more  oppres- 
sively under  the  weight  of  his  chains.  No  wounded 
hart  ever  panted  with  keener  anguish  under  the 
barbed  shaft.  It  is  in  vain  to  attempt  a  sketch  of 
the  sinner's  convictions,  as  he  comes  in  full  view  of 
a  violated  law,  an  offended  God,  and  an  abused 
gospel.  But  deep  as  are  these  sorrows,  they  are  the 
measure  of  that  joy  of  salvation  which  succeeds. 

Go  with  the  redemption  price  in  your  hand,  and 
unlock  the  cell  of  the  emaciated  captive.  As  you 
announce  to  him  the  liberty  which  he  is  permitted 
to  enjoy,  mark  well  the  emotions  of  his  soul.  Un- 
clasp his  fetters,  and  lead  him  forth  to  breathe 
once  more  the  air  of  heaven.  Let  him  actually 
feel  that  he  is  liberated,  and  that  the  beauties  of 
God's  universe  are  once  more  his  to  contemplate 
and  enjoy :  is  it  possible  to  describe  or  even  to 
conceive  his  joy?  Or  as  Cowper,  in  an  affecting 
strain  of  self- apply  ing  verse,  represents  himself  the 
stricken  deer,  with  arrow  deep  infixed,  flying  to  the 


60  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

shady  covert,  and  there  meeting  with  one  who  had 
himself  heen  shot  by  the  archers,  and  who  gently 
drew  out  the  dart  and  healed  the  wound ;  so  take 
the  poor  wounded  sinner,  and  go  with  him  to  the 
great  Physician.  See  how  effectually,  yet  how 
gently,  the  death -tipped  arrow  is  withdrawn,  and 
the  balm  of  Grilead  is  applied. 

Can  we  paint  the  emotion  of  the  wounded  Israel- 
ite, as,  stung  by  the  fiery  serpent,  and  already  ex- 
periencing the  cold  convulsions  of  death,  he  casts 
his  languid  eye  towards  yonder  brazen  emblem  ? 
Can  we  depict  his  joy  as  that  eye  rekindles  and  the 
pulsations  of  life  return  ?  Now,  "  as  Moses  lifted 
up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  has  the 
Son  of  man  been  lifted  up  ;  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 
0  there  is  nothing  in  nature,  nothing  in  the  release 
from  bodily  pain,  nothing  in  the  bestowment  of 
temporal  good,  that  properly  illustrates  the  transi- 
tion from  a  state  of  sin  and  condemnation  to  one  of 
hope  and  joy.  Spring  is  beautiful  as  she  puts  forth 
her  virgin  life  after  the  apparent  death  which  so 
long  had  reigned  over  the  face  of  nature.  Her  ten- 
der blade,  her  half- expanded  leaf,  her  timid  flower, 
her  dewdrops,  and  her  soft,  calm  skies,  are  all  ani- 
mating expressions  of  new-born  joy ;  but  how  much 
more  lovely  is  the  soul  that  has  just  waked  up  to  a 
life  of  holiness,  cast  off  its  grave-clothes,  come  forth 


JOY  OF  SALVATION.  61 

out  of  its  sepulchre,  and  bears  the  mild  impress  of 
God's  renewing  grace.  .  Here  is  a  subject  for  the 
joy  of  angels,  and  over  it  they  do  rejoice.  All 
heaven  is  moved  at  such  a  scene.  The  soul  which 
is  the  subject  of  this  change  is  "  full  of  joy  with  the 
light  of  God's  countenance."  This  is  the  joy  of 
salvation — of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ — of 
salvation  from  the  curse  of  the  law, 'from  the  do- 
minion of  sin,  from  the  woes  of  the  second  death. 


02  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

CHAPTER   XI. 

JOYFUL  PROMISES. 

IF  there  is  any  thing  on  earth  allied  to  the  joys 
of  heaven,  it  is  the  smile  on  the  countenance  of  a 
new-born  soul.  The  eye  is  more  eloquent  than  the 
tongue.  The  moisture  that  bedews  it  is  no  token 
of  sorrow.  The  storm  is  past,  the  winds  are  hushed, 
and  these  tears  are  like  the  last  drops  of  the  shower 
trembling  and  glistening  in  the  joyous  sunbeam. 
Hope  and  love  seem  to  vie  with  each  other  in 
spreading  a  verdant  path  for  the  feet  of  the  young 
pilgrim.  His  skies  are  all  bright,  and  his  song  is 
only  in  exultant  strains.  This  is  the  young  con- 
vert. His  soul  has  just  begun  to  beat  with  the 
joys  of  salvation. 

We  could  dwell  with  pleasure  on  this  lovely  pic- 
ture ;  but  we  are  aware  that  these  early  joys  are  not 
without  some  passing  clouds,  and  that  the  soul  in 
its  progress  meets  with  vicissitudes  analogous  to 
the  varying  incidents  of  an  earthly  pilgrimage. 
But  God  has  given  the  Christian  a  staff  on  which 
to  lean,  and  by  which — more  potent  than  the  magic 
wand — he  is  enabled  to  tread  cheerfully  and  securely 
his  path  to  the  skies.  I  refer  to  the  promises  of  the 
Bible. 


JOYFUL  PROMISES.  63 

When  the  Christian  experiences  the  joy  of  sal- 
vation, all  these  promises  are,  thenceforward,  his 
inheritance.  He  has  now  not  only  a  chart  delineat- 
ing his  course,  hut  these  starry  lights  to  cheer  and 
gukle  him  on  his  way.  Not  a  dangerous  pitfall 
can  occur,  nor  a  venomous  foe  aim  its  fang  against 
him ;  hut  he  has,  in  these  promises,  expedients  and 
antidotes  effectual  to  ward  off  the  danger.  There 
is  ho  situation  into  which  even  his  own  indiscretion 
can  throw  him  where  they  will  not  apply.  "Great 
and  precious"  are  these  promises,  and  well  calcu- 
lated to  encourage  and  animate  the  pilgrim. 

If  we  go  back  to  our  primitive  state,  we  find  that 
while  our  first  parents  were  bleeding  under  the 
wounds  which  their  sin  had  inflicted,  and  while 
the  note  of  condemnation  was  yet  ringing  in  their 
ears,  a  most  precious  promise  came,  like  a  healing 
balm,  from  their  injured  Sovereign,  "  The  seed  of 
the  woman  shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head."  On 
this  promise  the  patriarchs  lived ;  and,  in  view  of 
it,  arranged  the  altar  and  the  sacrifice  in  order  to 
keep  it  the  more  vividly  before  the  mind.  Abra- 
ham took  the  promise  of  Jehovah  as  his  guiding 
star  in  that  pilgrimage  which  he  prosecuted,  until 
he  rested  in  the  cave  of  Machpelah.  He  was  "  the 
father  of  the  faithful,"  and  his  confidence  in  these 
assurances  of  the  Almighty  was  such  as  to  justify 
the  appellation. 


64  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

But  the  promises  were  not  confined  to  a  temporal 
inheritance  even  in  the  case  of  Abraham  and  his 
immediate  posterity.  They  included  Canaan,  but 
pointed  to  a  brighter  inheritance  above.  So  also 
with  respect  to  believers  in  our  own  days,  while 
some  of  the  promises  of  God  appertain  to  "the  life 
that  now  is,"  the  most  of  them  refer  to  "  that  which 
is  to  come." 

There  is  no  state  of  mind  nor  any  outward  situ- 
ation in  which  we  may  not  find  some  divine  prom- 
ise applicable  to  our  wants.  How  many  are  the 
fluctuations  to  which  we  are  liable  in  this  sinful 
and  changeful  state.  These  vicissitudes  are  ap- 
pointed by  divine  wisdom  and  goodness  to  test  our 
sincerity,  to  strengthen  our  faith,  and  to  drive  us 
away  from  earthly  supports  to  the  simple  and 
solid  basis  of  heavenly  truth.  We  learn  not  its  pre- 
ciousness  until  we  are  in  circumstances  to  apply  it. 
Hence,  when  the  soul  is  perplexed  and  cast  down 
from  the  loss  of  its  sensible  joys,  it  has  recourse  to 
the  promises  which  declare,  that  "  light  is  sown 
for  the  righteous;"  and  " whoso  walketh  in  dark- 
ness and  seeth  no  light,  let  him  trust  in  the  Lord 
and  stay  himself  upon  his  God."  When  temptation 
presses  and  the  believer  seems  ready  to  yield,  he  is 
roused  and  sustained  by  the  assurance  that  "  God 
will  make  a  way  of  escape  ;"  and  that  if  we  "  resist 
the  devil,  he  will  flee  from  us."  In  sickness,  the 


JOYFUL  PROMISES.  65 

Christian  can  pillow  his  head  on  the  pledge,  "  Thou 
wilt  make  all  his  bed  in  his  sickness ;"  and  in  the 
hour  of  death — that  dread  hour  when  mortal  strength 
gives  way — he  has  the  consolatory  assurance,  that 
though  he  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death,  no  evil  shall  befall  him,  since  God  is 
with  him,  and  his  rod  and  staff  are  there  to  comfort 
him. 

The  divine  promises  cover  all  the  Christian's 
earthly  changes,  and  refer  to  all  his  earthly  rela- 
tions. They,  are  not  only  for  him,  but  for  "his 
children"  and  seem  to  have  a  prospective  bearing 
on  their  temporal  and  eternal  welfare,  as  if,  in 
paternal  condescension,  our  heavenly  Father  in- 
tended we  should  be  exempt  from  an  over-anxiety 
respecting  these  dearest  objects  of  earth.  In  the 
loss  of  earthly  friendships,  in  deepest  poverty,  in  the 
most  threatening  danger,  under  persecutions,  and 
when  envy  and  malignity  have  sharpened  their 
arrows  against  him,  the  Christian  can  go  to  the 
divine  word  and  gather  fresh  strength  to  suffer,  and 
obtain  new  and  glorious  motives  to  persevere  in  the 
path  of  duty.  In  the  mighty  conflict  with  self  and 
sin,  to  what  can  the  soldier  of  the  cross  look,  but  to 
these  assurances  of  strength  and  of  victory  which 
his  great  Captain  and  Leader  has  given  him? 
Here,  in  this  armory,  is  a  piece  fitted  for  the  soul 
in  every  situation  of  attack  and  of  defence.  The 

Who  are  Happy  \  O 


66  WHO  ARE   THE  HAPPY? 

panopfy  is  complete.  Clothed  in  it,  no  weapon  that 
is  formed  against  the  Christian  can  prosper.  It  is 
more  impervious  than  that  of  the  famed  Achilles, 
that  left  one  mortal  spot  exposed,  to  which  the 
fatal  arrow  at  last  found  access.  The  promises  of 
God  secure  the  Christian  from  ultimate  defeat,  and 
give  him  the  pledge  of  final  victory. 

No  wonder  that  Bunyan,  in  his  beautiful  alle- 
gory, gave  prominence  to  the  scroll  which  Chris- 
tian carried  in  his  bosom,  and  by  consulting  which 
in  critical  junctures  he  was  enabled  to  go  on  his 
way  rejoicing.  This  scroll  contained  these  "  great 
and  precious  promises."  How  joyfully  may  all  suc- 
ceeding pilgrims  travel  on  to  their  rest  with  such 
sweet  encouraging  assurances.  What  a  contrast 
does  their  state  present  to  that  of  those  who,  amid 
the  storms  and  tempests  of  life,  have  no  star  to 
guide,  and  no  secure  anchor  to  hold  them. 

But  these  promises  not  only  solace  and  animate 
the  pious  mind  in  view  of  its  own  personal  state, 
they  also  gild  the  distant  future  as  it  relates  to  the 
prospects  of  Zion  and  the  final  triumphs  of  redemp- 
tion. Over  this  fluctuating  scene  the  believer  can 
look  with  a  calm  confidence  that  the  Almighty  is 
at  work  to  fulfil  the  great  designs  of  his  kingdom, 
and  give  to  his  Son  the  universal  sceptre.  Are  not 
these  promises  joyful  ?  Can  he  who  studies  them 
and  trusts  in  them  be  the  sport  of  varying  winds 


.OYFUL  PROMISES.  67 

and  adverse  currents  ?  May  he  not  plant  his  feet 
upon  the  rock,  and  contemplate  the  billows  that 
beat  harmless  against  it  ?  Above  all,  he  can  glance 
his  eye  to  that  region  where  "  there  is  no  more 
sea,"  and  where  the  clouds  which  here  had  cur- 
tained the  footsteps  of  the  Almighty,  will  have 
cleared  away  and  revealed  the  wisdom  of  his  plans, 
the  benignity  of  his  acts,  the  rectitude  of  his  govern- 
ment, and  the  triumphs  of  his  mercy. 


58  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

CHAPTER   XII. 

JOYFUL  PROSPECTS. 

THE  animating  promises  to  which  we  have  re- 
ferred, naturally  lead  us  to  contemplate  the  blissful 
prospects  which  they  unfold.  Most  of  them,  as  was 
observed,  relate  to  that  world  which  is  to  come. 
Their  full  accomplishment  is  to  be  experienced 
when  the  soul  has  passed  through  its  earthly  dis- 
cipline and  reached  its  final  and  glorious  rest. 

The  Christian  fixes  his  eye  on  the  end,  and  finds 
his  imagination  busied  there  in  combining  the  bright 
visions  of  eternal  felicity. 

Now,  whatever  intermediate  joys  or  sorrows  a 
person  is  destined  to  realize,  yet  is  he  cheered  and 
sustained  if  the  end  wears  the  aspect  of  predomi- 
nant good.  But  by  none,  except  the  Christian, 
can  this  end  be  contemplated  with  entire  satisfac- 
tion. We  do  not  deny  that  even  he  has  at  times 
his  dark  forebodings,  nor  do  we  assert  that  his  faith 
always  mounts  to  a  triumphant  tone  when  he  sur- 
veys the  certainty  and  the  solemnity  of  death.  But 
his  religion  certainly  does  much  to  neutralize  its 
horrors.  It  gives  him  the  promise  of  support  in  the 
fearful  crisis,  and  reveals  to  his  faith  the  certain 
and  glorious  prospects  which  lie  beyond.  It  assures 


JOYFUL  PROSPECTS.  69 

him  that  when  "flesh  and  heart  shall  fail,  God 
will  be  the  strength  of  his  heart  and  his  portion  for 
ever."  It  declares  that  as  now  his  greatest  burden 
is  sin,  hereafter  that  burden  shall  be  felt  no  more ; 
and  that  since  his  strongest  aspirations  here  are  for 
greater  degrees  of  holiness,  his  desire  shall  be  satis- 
fied when  he  awakes  in  the  image  and  likeness  of 
God. 

But  exemption  from  the  evils  of  this  fallen  state, 
both  natural  and  moral,  including  an  amount  of 
good  which  no  imagination  can ,  picture,  and  the 
positive  addition  of  pure  and  satisfying  pleasures, 
as  endless  in  duration  as  they  are  ennobling  in 
their  influence  on  the  soul,  give  us  still  higher  im- 
pressions of  the  Christian's  future  portion.  "  Eye 
hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  entered 
into  the  heart  of  man  the  things  which  God  hath 
prepared  for  them  that  love  him." 

It  would  ill  become  the  writer  to  attempt  any 
description  of  what  is  indescribable.  We  some- 
times try  to  give  an  absent  friend  some  sketch  of 
natural  scenery  which  has  been  particularly  inter- 
esting to  ourselves.  We  labor  to  place  before  him 
the  distinct  features  of  the  landscape,  to  throw  the 
same  glowing  picture  upon  his  conceptions  which 
has  impressed  itself  on  our  own,  but  we  feel  that 
our  powers  are  inadequate  to  the  task.  We  cannot 
make  the  scene  live  and  breathe  before  him.  The 


70  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

freshness,  the  fragrance,  the  sweet  sounds,  the  sooth- 
ing, insinuating  beauties  which  steal  in  through 
every  sense,  and  tranquillize  or  enrapture  the  heart, 
we  cannot  infuse  into  the  description.  Now,  if  we 
strive  in  vain  to  "sketch  a  scene  from  nature  so  as 
to  make  an  adequate  impression,  how  poor  must  he 
the  most  labored  attempt  to  set  forth  the  glories  of 
that  world  which  we  have  not  seen  as  yet,  and  of 
which  even  the  primeval  earthly  paradise  was  but 
an  emblem. 

When  we  speak  of  joyful  prospects,  we  look  at 
the  end.  Man  lives  more  upon  the  future  than 
upon  the  present.  Hope  is  the  busy  feeling  or  emo- 
tion that  gives  elasticity  to  the  soul's  powers. 

The  heir  to  an  estate  expects  soon  to  pass  out  of 
his  minority.  He  chides  the  leaden-winged  hours 
which  move  so  slowly  towards  the  period  when  he 
is  to  take  possession  of  his  inheritance.  His  mind 
is  teeming  with  high  anticipations  of  the  pleasures 
which  will  then  be  at  his  command.  But  what  is 
this  prospect  compared  with  that  which  the  Chris- 
tian entertains  ?  It  is  not  to  earthly  and  withering 
joys  that  he  looks  forward,  but  "to  an  inheritance 
incorruptible  and  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not 
away." 

The  warrior  thinks  of  the  civic  crown  which 
admiring  and  grateful  citizens  are  to  place  upon 
his  brow,  and  the  prospect  nerves  his  arm  and  sus- 


JOYFUL  PROSPECTS.  71 

tains  his  courage.  It  lights  up  the  darkest  scene 
of  conflict,  and  makes  the  severest  toil  easy  to  be 
borne.  The  mariner  far  off  on  the  deep  lives  on  9 
the  hope  of  a  quiet  haven,  and  the  greeting  of  loved 
ones,  whose  caresses  are  to  make  him  forget  the 
boisterous  winds  and  the  impending  dangers  of  his 
voyage.  But  what  are  those  prospects  compared 
with  the  immortal  crown  for  which  the  Christian 
contends,  and  which,  if  he  is  "  faithful  unto  death," 
will  be  given  him  amid  the  congratulations  of  heav- 
en's blissful  inhabitants  ?  What  haven  is  so  calm 
as  the*  "  haven  of  eternal  rest ;"  where,  after  being 
tossed  upon  this  troubled  sea,  the  soul  is  at  last 
admitted,  and  moors  itself  along  the  banks  of  that 
river  of  life  which  is  clear  as  crystal,  and  which  is 
skirted  by  the  immortal  fruits  of  paradise  ?  Cheer- 
ing prospects  these.  Surely  the  Christian  can  and 
ought  to  rejoice.  The  intermediate  events  may  not, 
to  the  eye  of  sense,  seem  so  auspicious  as  from  his 
admitted  character  we  should  anticipate ;  but  we 
are  to  estimate  his  happiness  not  only  by  what  is 
visible  and  present,  but  by  what  is  unseen,  and 
what  is  yet  to  be  realized. 

The  pathway  to  our  rest,  if  not  all  smooth  and 
verdant,  is  sufficiently  so  to  give  it  a  decided  pref- 
erence over  those  which  the  worldling  and  the  sen- 
sualist tread.  But  the  great  attraction  lies  in  the 
direction  which  it  takes,  and  in  the  glories  to  which 


72  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

it  leads.  We  can  bear  to  traverse  a  rugged  way,  if 
it  terminate  in  a  fertile  country,  or  if  it  conduct  us 
•  to  a  splendid  and  well-furnished  home.  Now  the 
Christian's  course  is  far  from  being  a  rugged  one  : 
on  the  contrary,  as  appears  from  what  has  been 
said,  it  has  much  to  make  the  traveller  elate  and 
joyful.  But  0,  its  end !  See  where  it  leads  his 
feet ;  to  what  a  calm  and  cloudless  region  it  con- 
ducts him  !  HEAVEN  is  its  termination.  Its  man- 
sions of  rest  are  ever  in  view.  Like  the  never- 
fading  glory  which  Bunyan  keeps  before  his  hero's 
eye,  and  which,  though  far  in  the  distance,  serves 
to  cheer  him  on  through  difficulties  and  dangers, 
these  promised  scenes  appeal  incessantly  to  the  eye 
of  faith,  and  sustain  the  spirit  in  its  upward  flight. 
Here  is  a  view  of  the  Christian's  prospects,  which 
even  they  who  deny  his  claim  to  present  felicity 
must  admit  to  be  a  joyful  one.  Ah,  how  often 
does  the  child  of  vanity  sigh  to  think  that  he  can- 
not have  this  world  and  heaven  too  ;  and  with 
what  gladness  would  he  at  last  accept  of  the  good 
man's  prospects  and  share  his  bright  reward.  But 
to  do  this  he  must  consent  to  take  his  cross,  to  bear 
his  burdens,  to  walk  in  the  same  path ;  then,  arid 
not  till  then,  may  he  indulge  the  hope  that  "  his 
last  end  will  be  like  his." 


OBSTRUCTIONS  TO  PIOUS  JOY.  73 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

OBSTRUCTIONS  TO  PIOUS  JOY. 

HAVING  now  developed  some  of  the  resources  of 
Christian  cheerfulness,  it  is  time  to  inquire  whether 
we  avail  ourselves  of  them,  and  are  as  joyful  as  our 
religion  is  designed  to  make  us. 

The  very  statement  of  this  question  brings  a  sigh, 
I  fear,  from  the  reader,  who  is  conscious,  perhaps, 
that  while  there  is  no  deficiency  in  his  religion, 
there  is  a  very  deep  and  criminal  one  in  himself. 

It  is  with  the  view  to  make  the  Christian  under- 
stand his  privileges,  and  to  improve  them  to  the 
furtherance  of  his  happiness,  that  these  pages  are 
indited  ;  and  this  cannot  be  effected  without  laying 
open  some  of  the  obstructions  which  hinder  the 
soul  from  reaching  that  mount  of  clear  vision  and 
bright  prospects  to  which  the  blessed  gospel  in- 
vites us. 

It  is  a  melancholy  circumstance,  especially  in  its 
influence  upon  the  unthinking  world,  that  the  joy 
of  the  professors  of  religion  seems  so  seldom  to  flow 
directly  from  their  piety.  Some  are  scarcely  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  world  in  their  apparent 
sources  of  felicity.  They  drink  eagerly  at  the  same 
fountains,  and  range  as  freely  and  as  exultingly 


74  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

among  the  same  pleasures.  But  little  need  be  said 
of  such,  since  their  preferences,  and  their  associates, 
and  their  habitual  joys  evince  that  it  is  very  possible 
to  wear  the  name  without  realizing  the  blessings 
of  the  Christian. 

But  we  will  take  those  who,  in  the  judgment  of 
charity,  "  have  passed  from  death  unto  life,"  and 
see  whether  even  among  these  there  is  not  room 
for  improvement — whether  some  serious  obstruc- 
tions do  not  exist  to  the  full  development  of  their 
moral  influence,  and  to  the  allowed  exercise  of  their 
pious  joy. 

In  the  world  of  nature,  it  is  astonishing  how 
much  attention  and  cultivation  will  do  in  advanc- 
ing the  strength  and  the  beauty  of  her  productions. 
The  plant  that  exhibited  but  a  stinted  growth  when 
wild  and  uncared  for,  or  when  overshadowed  by 
other  vegetation,  if  removed  from  these  uncongenial 
circumstances  and  set  in  a  more  favorable  position, 
will  soon  erect  its  head,  put  on  additional  verdure, 
and  bear  more  abundant  fruit.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  finest  tree  that  grows  in  the  rich  fruitery,  if 
neglected  by  the  husbandman,  or  transferred  to  a 
less  congenial  region,  will  soon  become  dwarfish 
and  unsightly,  even  should  it  not  actually  wither 
and  die.  Think  ye  it  is  the  reverse  of  this  in  the 
kingdom  of  grace  ?  Has  Providence  no  moral  les- 
sons to  inculcate  by  the  analogies  of  nature  ?  Aro 


OBSTRUCTIONS  TO  PIOUS  JOY.  75 

there  not  obstructions  as  well  as  facilities  to  the 
growth  of  grace,  and  can  we  be  insensible  to  the 
importance  of  ascertaining  them  ? 

It  is  not  the  design  of  this  little  work  to  enter 
minutely  into  Christian  experience,  and  trace  all 
the  varying  symptoms  of  the  soul  under  the  action 
of  its  remaining  depravity.  There  are  causes  of 
depression  and  fear  which  operate  on  the  Christian 
in  every  stage  of  his  journey,  but  do  not  necessarily 
hinder  him  in  his  course,  nor  for  any  length  of  time 
deprive  him  of  his  spiritual  joys.  The  power  of  the 
great  adversary  is  fatal  somewhat  in  accordance 
with  the  manner  in  which  it  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  soul.  A  sudden  attack,  however  over- 
whelming, is  less  injurious  than  the  gradual  but 
certain  relaxation  of  pious  watchfulness.  Apollyon, 
when  striding  our  path  and  brandishing  his  fiery 
darts,  is  not  so  much  to  be  dreaded  as  when,  by 
some  of  his  subtle  agents,  he  spreads  a  flowery  path 
for  our  feet,  and  invites  us  away  from  our  prescribed 
journey.  In  the  former  case  the  dread  is  but  mo- 
mentary ;  and  if  the  foe  be  faced  and  by  grace 
resisted,  the  Christian  soldier,  though  intensely 
beset,  will  come  off  conqueror  and  sing  the  song  of 
victory.  This  will  add  to  his  joys,  instead  of  dimin- 
ishing them.  But  in  the  other  case,  the  approach 
is  so  conducted,  and  with  such  well-concerted 
schemes  and  appliances,  that  the  Christian  is  off 


76  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

his  guard,  and  listens  to  the  tempter  before  he 
is  aware  of  his  designs.  The  first  wrong  step 
seems  so  easy,  and  to  be  so  slight  a  deviation  from 
the  "  king's  highway,"  that  the  Christian  ventures 
to  take  it ;  but  he  soon  finds,  that  to  be  out  of  the 
path  is  more  dangerous  far,  than  while  in  it  and 
with  his  face  towards  Zion  to  meet  the  most 
formidable  of  his  adversaries.  How  surely,  if  not 
speedily,  will  his  joys  fall  off  under  these  wander- 
ings from  the  path  of  duty.  Be  his  first  emotions 
as  a  young  convert  ever  so  pure  and  joyous,  they 
will  not  abide  these  subtle  insinuations,  but,  like 
the  tender  plant  which  can  meet  unhurt  the  rush 
of  the  tempest,  yet  droops  and  hangs  its  head  under 
the  silent  but  more  fatal  action  of  the  frost,  they 
will  fade  under  the  seductive  influence  of  worldly 
pleasures.  It  will  be  in  unison  with  the  object  of 
this  work,  therefore,  to  consider  the  obstructions 
which  arise  from  this  latter  cause,  inasmuch  as  in 
our  country,  and  in  the  present  state  of  society,  the 
dangers  to  vital  piety  and  to  all  its  lovely  fruits 
are  far  greater  from  the  action  of  earthly  influ- 
ences than  from  the  sudden  onset  of  the  prince  of 
darkness. 

Every  age  has  its  peculiarities  by  which  the  state 
of  the  Christian  church  is  greatly  affected ;  and  it 
is  important  to  know  what  and  how  numerous  are 
the  influences  adverse  to  piety  in  this  age,  and  how 


OBSTRUCTIONS  TO  PIOUS  JOY.  77 

certainly  Christian  character  is  modified  by  them. 
An  army  is  sometimes  overthrown  by  a  direct  and 
powerful  assault,  but  more  frequently  perhaps  by 
stratagem.  It  will  find  itself  marching  on  apparently 
unresisted.  The  cities  will  seem  to  be  flung  open, 
and  the  highway  clear — something  like  the  onward 
progress  of  Napoleon's  grand  army  in  Russia — but 
in  the  mean  time  the  foe,  though  concealed  himself, 
is  observant  of  his  victim.  The  plot  is  at  length 
developed,  and  the  dreadful  discomfiture  takes  place ; 
in  which  case,  if  the  betrayed  army  make  good  its 
retreat,  it  is  with  broken  ranks  and  dispirited  feel- 
ings and  trailing  standards.  Something  like  this 
is  to  be  apprehended  in  the  influence  of  the  world 
upon  the  hosts  of  Israel  at  the  present  day.  There 
is  great  security  on  the  part  'of  Christians,  and  great 
apparent  yielding  on  the  part  of  the  world,  in  order 
to  accommodate  and  thus  draw  upon  its  own  ground 
the  pledged  soldiers  of  the  cross.  Here  is  the  dan- 
ger, and  let  every  Christian  look  at  it  and  inquire 
whether  he,  as  one  of  this  great  army,  is  not  march- 
ing in  the  wrong  direction. 


78  WHO  ARE   THE   HAFTY? 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CONSTANT  CONTACT  WITH  THE  WORLD  UNFAVOR- 
ABLE TO  PIOUS  JOY. 

ONE  part  of  "  pure  religion"  is  to  keep  "  unspot- 
ted from  the  world."  How  few  reflect  daily  on 
this  feature  of  true  piety,  and  how  little  danger  is 
felt  by  professors  of  religion  from  direct  and  con- 
stant contact  with  the  world.  But  look  at  this 
beautiful  allusion  again.  How  carefully  does  the 
delicate-  hand  adjust  and  guard  the  unsoiled  gar- 
ment, as  the  path  becomes  obstructed  and  the  dress 
exposed.  One  spot  will  mar  its  beauty  and  make 
its  owner  sigh  ;  but  if  by  rough  contact  with  some 
offensive  object  it  should  be  denied,  it  will  hence- 
forth be  laid  aside  as  useless.  Is  the  care  which 
we  bestow  upon  the  soul,  or  even  on  the  Christian 
character,  to  be  compared  with  this  ?  And  would 
not  some  professors  sigh  over  a  soiled  garment  more 
than  at  the  gradual  diminution  of  spiritual  purity 
which  they  are  experiencing  by  constant  intercourse 
with  the  world? 

But  shall  we  therefore  retire  into  obscurity,  and, 
like  the  ascetic,  pass  an  act  of  non-intercourse  with 
society,  while  we  pore  in  silent  abstraction  over  our 
own  peculiar  feelings  ?  We  answer,  that  one  ex- 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  WORLD  79 

treme,  if  dangerous,  does  not  justify  us  in  flying  to 
the  other,  if  it  be  forbidden.  Now  our  Saviour,  in 
his  commands  and  counsels,  has  not  advised  to  this 
latter  extreme,  but  has  actually  indicated  his  dis- 
approbation of  it,  by  declaring  that  his  followers 
are  "the  salt  of  the  earth"  and  "  the  light  of  the 
world  ;"  and  by  exhorting  them  to  "  let  their  light 
shine  before  men,"  it  is  clear  that  he  requires  us  to 
live  in  the  world,  and  to  illustrate  our  religion  be- 
fore its  eyes.  In  his  intercessory  prayer,  also,  he 
says,  "'I  pray  not  that  thou  shouldst  take  them 
out  of  the  world,  but  that  thou  shouldst  keep  them 
from  the  evil."  This  is  precisely  in  harmony  with 
the  characteristic  of  pure  religion  to  "keep  unspot 
ted  from  the  world,"  and  this  is  all  we  plead  for : 
that  a  Christian,  if  he  would  not  let  down  his  pro- 
fession and  part  with  his  appropriate  joy  and  felicity, 
must  walk  carefully  in  a  world  so  filled  with  objects 
calculated  to  mar  his  high  vocation. 

There  are  extremes,  namely,  the  ascetic  life,  and 
the  over-tasked  and  jaded  spirit  that  passes  its  almost 
entire  existence  in  the  busy  and  care- corroding  world. 
We  shall  not  undertake  to  estimate  the  comparative 
guilt  and  danger  of  these  extremes,  but  simply  ob- 
serve, that  in  our  times,  if  there  be  guilt  in  the  life 
of  an  ascetic,  it  is  not  very  probable  that  many  pro- 
fessors of  religion  will  incur  it.  The  danger  with  us. 
lies  on  the  other  extreme ;  and  assimilation  ivith, 


80  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

rather  than  separation  from  the  world,  is  likely  to 
involve  us  in  guilt,  and  to  take  from  us  our  confi- 
dence and  joy. 

The  world  has  almost  given  up  its  persecuting 
spirit,  either  because  Christianity  has  become  so 
predominant  as  fearlessly  to  ask  the  shield  of  the 
law  to  protect  her,  or — which  it  is  feared  is  the 
more  palpable  reason — because  there  is  so  little  of 
her  pure  spirit  manifested  as  not  to  excite  opposi- 
tion, and  hence  a  sort  of  compromise  has  gradually 
though  not  avowedly  taken  place.  The  world  will 
tolerate  piety  with  such  modifications  in  the  con- 
duct of  her  professors  that  it  will  not  disturb  the 
fears  of  the  worldling,  'but  rather  afford  an  apology 
for  his  continued  idolatry.  The  line  of  separation 
having  thus  gradually  faded,  the  professor  is  solic- 
ited to  part  with  his  scruples,  and  to  mingle  indis- 
criminately with  men  of  all  principles  and  pro- 
fessions. 

Now,  what  is  the  effect  of  this?  In  the  first 
place,  the  pious  man  is  by  these  circumstances 
thrown  off  his  guard,  and  goes  into  the  world  with 
almost  as  little  fear  of  evil  consequences  as  if  he 
were  associating  only  with  the  good.  The  next 
effect  of  such  free  and  constant  intercourse  is,  to 
diminish  the  glow  of  pious  feeling  and  to  weaken 
the  power  of  conscience.  At  length  the  professor 
can  scarcely  live  out  of  the  world.  Its  business,  its 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  WORLD.  81 

politics,  its  stirring  events,  yea,  even  its  pleasures 
are  gradually  becoming  topics  of  deep  interest.  His 
joy  is  now  derived  from  other  sources  than  it  was 
wont  to  be.  The  place  of  retirement  used  to  have 
attractions,  and  the  throne  of  grace  used  to  be 
visited  as  the  soul's  happy  home.  How  many  hours 
of  tranquil  delight  have  been  passed  in  secret,  the 
world  shut  out,  and  the  spirit  taking  excursions  to 
the  land  of  Beulah ;  but  now  these  joys  are  -gone. 
Serious  obstructions  have  occurred.  The  world 
has  put  in  its  claim.  It  has  gone  to  the  Christian 
and  fastened  on  him  anew  its  chain.  It  has  required 
of  him  what  all  tyrants  do,  that  he  should  acknow- 
ledge no  other  master.  It  says  to  him,  "  You  may 
exercise  your  religion  on  the  Sabbath,  when  my 
service  cannot  be  performed,  and  I  will  allow  you 
a  few  moments  of  hurried  and  heartless  prayer  in 
the  morning  and  in  the  evening,  but  the  rest  of 
your  time  and  attention  I  claim  for  the  purpose  of 
business,  society,  and  pleasure." 

We  will  not  undertake  to  say  how  many  pro- 
fessors of  piety  are  thus  drawn  away  by  the  world 
and  live  wholly  amidst  its  exciting  scenes.  But 
many  are  exposed  to  this  course  of  life  from  the 
peculiar  state  of  society  in  our  day  and  country. 
Their  business  and  their  engagements  render  them 
the  easy  victims  of  the  world's  temptations.  It  is 
this  constant  contact  with  the  world  which  we 

Who  arc  Happy?  6 


S2  WHO  ARE  THE  HAFPYf 

deprecate,  and  which,  more  than  any  one  cause, 
we  dread  as  undermining  the  vital  principles  of 
piety.  Is  such  a  Christian  happy?  Is  his  joy 
"  the  joy  of  the  Lord  ?"  Ah,  if  he  has  ever  tasted 
of  pious  joy,  he  must  feel  the  sad  contrast  in  the 
meagre  and  unsatisfying  pleasures  which  are  ten- 
dered to  him.  Look  at  Denras.  See  his  care-worn 
brow  that  used  to  wear  the  smile  of  heaven,  and 
his  sorrow-shaded  face  that  seems  to  oay,  "  My 
religious  joys  are  gone ;"  and  yet  he  has  too  much 
conscience  left  to  appropriate  without  fearful  mis- 
givings the  pleasures  of  the  world.  If  he  would 
speak  out,  he  would  exclaim,  "  I  was  once  a  happy 
man  ;  I  lived  on  the  promises  of  God,  and  gathered 
my  joys  along  the  green  pastures  of  his  grace.  I 
loved  to  go  alone  and  commune  with  my  Maker, 
and  felt  as  if  the  world  was  hut  a  vanity.  Alas, 
what  am  I  now?  Day  after  day  I  am  busied  and 
anxious  about  many  things,  while  the  "  one  thing 
needful "  is  neglected.  The  business  I  have  chosen, 
and  the  engagements  which  I  have  made,  drive  me 
on,  against  the  remonstrating  voice  of  conscience, 
while  my  soul  is  oppressed  with  the  fearful  idea  of 
final  apostasy  and  ruin!" 


CONTACT  WITH  THE   WORLD.  83 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

THE  lamentation  of  Demas,  with  which  the  last 
chapter  concludes,  implies  a  fault  too  common 
among  professing  Christians,  especially  those  whose 
business  and  engagements  lead  them  into  frequent 
contact  with  the  world.  This  obstruction  to  their 
piety,  and  of  course  to  their  true  felicity  and  joy, 
is  great  in  proportion  to  the  time  consumed  and  the 
interest  felt  in  earthly  pleasures  and  connections. 

We  do  not  admit  the  impossibility  of  mingling 
with  the  world  and  still  retaining  our  peace  of 
mind,  our  Christian  influence,  und  our  pious  joy. 
Many  might  be  named  who  keep  "the  garment 
unspotted"  and  the  soul  unclogged  amid  the  cares 
of  earth,  and  under  the  pressure  of  its  daily  toil. 
It  would  be  an  argument  against  our  religion  if  it 
disqualified  its  possessor  for  the  performance  of  any 
duty,  social,  civil,  or  political,  if  it  did  not  in  fact 
fit  him  the  better  to  discharge  these  obligations. 
It  is  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity  to 
meet  cheerfully  every  occasion  which  Providence 
furnishes  for  the  promotion  of  the  general  good.  It 
is  the  duty  of  her  professors  to  shrink  from  no  bur- 
den which  may  lawfully  be  borne,  and  to  retreat 


84  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

from  no  station,  if  personally  qualified,  in  which 
they  may  serve  their  country  without  dishonoring 
their  religion.  "  Faith  overcomes  the  world."  This 
is  the  testimony  of  heaven.  But  this  victory  im- 
plies not  a  retreat  from,  but  a  conflict  with  the  foe. 
We  are  to  pray  not  to  be  "  taken  out  of  the  world, 
but  to  be  kept  from  the  evil." 

But  while  all  this  is  true,  it  is  nevertheless 
equally  true  that  mingling  constantly  with  the 
world  is  a  perilous  experiment,  upon  which  few 
can  venture  without  detriment  to  their  religion. 
The  danger  arises  from  not  fully  understanding  the 
tendency  of  worldly  influences  upon  the  soul,  and 
also  from  not  taking  the  proper  precautions  to  coun- 
teract it.  One  of  these  precautions  is,  to  allot  a 
sufficient  portion  of  time  for  the  daily,  habitual  im- 
provement of  the  pious  affections.  If  this  Were 
done,  there  would  be  comparatively  little  danger 
from  the  subtle  foe. 

The  Christian  is  represented  as  a  warrior  clothed 
in  a  panoply  which  he  is  to  use  both  for  attack  and 
for  defence.  Now  this  armor  is  to  be  on  him  con 
tinually.  It  is  also  requisite  that  every  day  he 
examine  it,  to  see  if  it  be  well  fitted  and  properly 
polished,  since  not  a  day  passes  in  which  his  enemy 
is  not  watching  to  plant  "  an  a^row  between  the 
joints  of  the  harness."  But  how  can  this  be  done 
if  the  soldier  is  always  on  the  field  and  never  in 


CONTACT  WITH  THE   WORLD.  85 

his  tent  ?  By  mingling  constantly  with  his  foes,  he 
may  be  overpowered  through  weariness,  and  have 
his  armor  stript  from  him  ere  he  is  aware  of  it.  But 
waiving  figurative  language,  it  must  he  confessed 
that  there  is  great  negligence  in  many  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  their  closet  duties  are  performed, 
and  a  miserly  appropriation  of  time  to  God  and  to 
the  soul.  They  live  too  constantly  in  the  world  to 
alloiv  of  their  living  in  it  without  great  detriment 
to  their  piety.  To  walk  unharmed  this  dangerous 
path,  the  Christian  must  duly  contemplate  his  ex- 
posedness,  and  so  proportion  his  time  between  his 
business  engagements  and  the  claims  of  devotion  as 
that  the  latter  shall  neutralize  completely  the  in- 
jurious tendency  of  the  former.  There  must  be 
daily  retirement,  and  enough  of  it,  or  the  soul  will 
lose  its  joys,  if  not  its  piety,  amid  the  bustling  scenes 
of  earth. 

It  is  a  fixed  law  of  our  nature,  that  whateve) 
most  constantly  appeals  to  the  thoughts  acts  power- 
fully upon  the  moral  affections,  and  thus  gives  the 
impress  of  itself  upon  the  soul.  All  experience  tes 
tifies  to  this.  Let,  then,  the  Christian  plunge  into 
the  agitated  sea  of  earthly  cares,  and  from  day  to 
day  fix  his  thoughts  upon  the  business,  the  plans, 
the  politics,  and  the  pleasures  of  the  world — let 
him  give  his  mind  intensely  and  habitually  to  these 
things,  and  what  will  become  of  his  religion  ?  "What 


86  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

judgment  will  men  form  of  it  ?  But  suppose,  in 
the  mean  time,  but  a  very  small  portion  of  each  day 
is  allotted  to  prayer  and  other  devotional  duties ;  or, 
what  perhaps  is  possible,  these  duties  are  irregu- 
larly and  superficially  performed ;  where  will  be 
the  expression  of  his  piety,  and  who  in  his  case 
would  suppose  that  it  was  the  mainspring  of  the 
soul's  felicity?  Is  it  not  easy  to  see  that  the  world 
must,  under  such  circumstances,  impress  itself 
strongly  on  the  mind,  and  proportionably  efface  the 
divine  image  of  piety. 

Let  the  Christian,  on  the  other  hand,  consider 
well  his  exposedness,  and  so  arrange  his  affairs  that 
religion  shall  have  its  just  claim  in  the  apportion- 
ment of  his  time.  Let  him  not  be  in  the  world 
except  when  duty  and  necessity  call  him  there,  and 
let  him  prepare,  by  God's  grace,  for  coming  in  con- 
flict with  it.  It  must  be  an  habitual,  daily  prep- 
aration. Some  professors  of  religion  who  could  be 
named,  appear  to  act  on  the  principle  of  putting  off 
converse  with  their  own  hearts  until  old-age  or 
sickness  compels  them  to  it ;  and  they  seem  to 
understand  our  Lord,  when  he  says,  "  work  while 
the  day  lasteth,"  as  calling  them  to  an  unremitted 
effort  for  worldly  good.  Alas,  such  will  bitterly 
lament  their  course.  The  happy  Christian  gives  a 
due  proportion  of  his  time  daily  to  his  God.  He 
has  his  seasons  of  retirement,  and  will  not  allow  the 


CONTACT  WITH  THE  WORLD.  87 

intrusive  world  to  rob  him  of  them.  He  is  thus 
prepared  for  the  intercourse  and  collision  of  active 
life,  and  is  enabled  to  walk  the  fiery  furnace  un- 
scorched  by  its  flame.  His  mind  is  habitually 
turned  to  God,  and  his  religion  sanctifying  his 
worldly  business,  makes  it  the  occasion  of  a  richer 
development  of  his  heaven-born  nature. 

Gams  is  called  to  bear  as  many  and  as  oppressive 
worldly  burdens  as  any  man.  But  his  religion 
suffers  not  by  this  necessity.  Indeed  it  is  his  piety 
which  enables  him  so  calmly  to  meet  and  to  dis- 
charge the  arduous  duties  of  his  station.  Wherever 
you  see  him  his  countenance  is  calm,  and  he  is 
always  ready  to  speak  of  higher  joys,  even  when, 
the  world  goes  prosperously  with  him.  He  is  evi- 
dently a  man  of  prayer.  His  earliest  thoughts  are 
given  to  God,  and  ere  the  business  of  the  day  or 
the  engagements  of  social  life — clamorous  as  they 
are  for  his  attention — have  preferred  their  request, 
he  is  settling  the  higher  claims  of  the  soul,  and  by 
earnest  prayer  is  equipping  it  for  its  daily  conflict. 
Gaius  is  no  recluse.  He  is  not  indifferent  to  the 
pleasures  of  life  when  they  may  be  enjoyed  with- 
out the  sacrifice  of  principle,  nor  is  he  backward  in. 
giving  his  influence  and  his  toil  in  all  that  respects 
even  the  temporal  good  of  his  fellow-men.  But 
one  look  at  the  man  will  tell  you  that  his  highest 
qualification  is  that  he  is  a  Christian.  His  joys 


H8  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

are  evidently  those  of  true  piety.  He  keeps  the 
private  altar  bright  with  the  incense  of  devotion; 
and  by  first  making  sure  his  walk  with  God,  he  is 
enabled  to  go  forth  into  the  world  with  the  calm 
consciousness  that  he  who  has  appointed  to  him  its 
duties  and  exposed  him  to  its  dangers,  will  assist 
him  in  the  discharge  of  the  one,  and  will  protect 
him  from  the  other.  It  is  needless  to  add  that  he 
is  a  happy  man. 


THE    PURSUIT  OF  RIGHES.  89 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE  PURSUIT  OF  RICHES  UNFAVORABLE   TO  A 
CHRISTIAN'S   HAPPINESS. 

WHY  is  it  that  some  Christians  are  found  hi  such 
constant  contact  with  the  world  ?  Why  are  closet 
duties  abridged  or  neglected,  while  time  is  freely 
and  even  lavishly  given  to  business  and  to  pleas- 
ure ?  Ah,  it  has  been  sadly  answered  in  the  almost 
unbounded  thirst  for  gain,  which,  like  a  sweeping 
epidemic,  has  found  its  way  into  the  habitations 
and  the  hearts  of  the  pious  as  well  as  among 
others.  There  is  nothing  in  modern  times  which 
so  fearfully  threatens  the  cause  of  vital  piety ;  and 
if  Providence  does  not  meet  the  evil  by  an  over 
whelming  rebuke,  it  is  impossible  to  calculate  how 
deep  and  wide-spread  it  may  become. 

The  astonishing  anomaly  has  been  witnessed  of 
men  professing  to  live  above  the  world,  wholly  bent 
on  acquiring  its  possessions.  Those  who  by  their 
vows  renounce  its  pomps  and  its  vanities,  have 
been  seen  foremost  in  plans  to  secure  these  distinc- 
tions, and  even  ostentatious  in  the  exhibition  of 
them.  Now  we  would  know  if  the  self-denying 
religion  of  Jesus  authorizes  this  course,  or  if  piety 
is  to  be  held  responsible  for  conduct  by  which  her 


90  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

principles  are  outraged  and  set  at  defiance.  Alas, 
her  bosom  has  bled  under  this  wound  until  her  very 
existence  has  been  seriously  threatened. 

It  will  not  be  denied,  I  presume,  that  we  are 
under  obligations  to  imitate  our  Saviour  as  well  as 
to  believe  in  him.  Indeed,  we  cannot  truly  believe 
iviihout  imitating  him. 

But  must  we  imitate  him  in  his  poverty  ?  Must 
we  cast  away  our  pillows  of  down  and  vacate  our 
comfortable  mansions,  that,  like  Jesus,  we  may 
"  not  have  where  to  lay  our  heads  ?"  Or  must  we 
neglect  to  provide  for  our  own,  to  place  our  fami- 
lies in  independent  circumstances  ?  "  Surely,"  says 
the  thrifty  and  money-making  Christian,  "  piety 
does  not  require  this  of  us."  Well,  admit  that  she 
does  not — admit  that  she  allows  us  to  sleep  on  our 
soft  pillows,  to  live  in  fine  houses,  to  ride  in  splen- 
did vehicles,  and  to  feast  on  rich  dainties,  while  he 
whom  we  serve  possessed  none  of  these  things  ;  or 
admit,  if  your  taste  be  such,  that  she  allows  you  to 
prefer  plainer  accommodations  with  the  sweet  con- 
sciousness of  more  hoarded  treasure — and  the  con- 
duct of  many  professedly  pious  would  seem  to  claim 
that  religion  does  allow  all  this — -admit  it,  and  we 
have  still  to  ask  what  she  disallows.  Is  there  any 
abridgment  of  our  earthly  desires  which  she  de- 
mands ?  If  there  is  none — if  we  may  embark  in 
the  pursuit  of  riches  with  as  unbridled  an  appetite 


THE  PURSUIT  OF  RICHES.  91 

as  the  professed  votaries  of  the  world,  and  vie  with 
them  in  the  manifestation  of  external  grandeur,  it 
must  follow  that  Jesus  did  not  mean  what  he  said, 
or  that  he  was  mistaken  when  he  declared,  "  Ye 
cannot  serve  God  and  mammon."  There  is  some 
difference  between  literally  impoverishing  ourselves 
for  the  sake  of  being  like  Christ,  and  manifesting 
a  totally  opposite  character  in  a  greedy  and  all- 
absorbing  pursuit  of  the  world.  There  is  not  quite 
so  much  danger  in  the  former  case  of  serving  God 
too  much,  as  there  is  in  the  latter  of  not  serving 
him  at  all.  It  has  not  been  the  fault  of  Chris- 
tians that  they  have  been  over-righteous  in  this 
matter. 

It  is  a  subject  for  serious  inquiry,  how  far  the 
pursuit  of  riches  is  consistent  with  true  and  genu- 
ine piety ;  and  whether  the  changes,  political  and 
social,  which  have  taken  place  since  Christ  laid 
down  his  self-denying  rules,  do  really  permit  us  to 
overlook  their  obligation,  and  make  common  cause 
with  other  men  in  all  their  prospects  and  their 
plans  of  gain.  In  order  to  settle  this  point,  we 
seem  to  need,  that,  with  his  fan  in  his  hand,  Jesus 
should  corne  to  sift  out  the  commingled  opinions 
and  practices  which  have  supervened ;  and  sepa- 
rating the  precious  from  the  vile,  to  show  who  are 
and  who  are  not  his  genuine  disciples. 

But  is  there  no  criterion  by  which  we  can  under- 


92  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

stand  the  mind  of  Christ  on  this  subject  ?  Is  there 
no  voice  within  that  utters  its  verdict,  and  assents 
or  dissents  to  the  position  which  is  sometimes  taken 
on  the  question  ?  Hearest  thou  not  something  in 
the  secret  soul  that  speaks  of  departed  joys,  and  a 
backslidden  state,  and  overclouded  hopes  ?  Is  there 
not  in  the  Christian's  experience  a  response  to  what 
Jesus  has  said,  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mam- 
mon ?"  How  many  are  there  who  ran  well  the 
first  part  of  their  race,  who  seemed  to  have  their 
eye  on  the  heavenly  prize  with  a  fair  prospect  of 
obtaining  it,  but  who  caught,  as  by  a  side  glance,  a 
view  of  the  tempting  bait  of  riches,  and  all  at  once 
their  feet  loitered  in  the  course,  their  eye  was 
averted  from  the  goal,  and  ere  long  they  were 
found  running  with  equal,  if  not  greater  zeal,  after 
the  rewards  of  mammon.  But  how  has  this  diver- 
sion of  their  interest  and  zeal  operated  upon  their 
spirits  ?  Has  it  had  the  effect  to  augment  or  to 
diminish  their  joy  ?  Are  they  as  happy  in  serving 
mammon  as  they  were  formerly  in  serving  God  ? 
But  it  is  replied,  "  We  have  not  given  up  our  relig- 
ion ;  although  it  has  not,  we  admit,  the  same  influ- 
ence upon  our  happiness  as  it  once  had.  We  have 
not  actually  lost  sight  of  its  obligations  nor  inter- 
mitted entirely  its  duties.  We  worship  God  in  the 
family  if  we  do  not  in  the  closet,  and  we  are  found 
in  our  seats  in  the  sanctuary  even  if  we  have  lost 


THE  PURSUIT  OF  RICHES.  93 

our  interest  in  the  social  prayer-meeting.  Besides, 
by  gaining  more  of  the  world  we  are  enabled  to 
give  more  for  the  spread  of  the  gospel,  so  that  we 
cannot  be  charged  with  an  actual  defection  from 
the  ranks  of  the  pious."  Sad  confession  this,  of 
pious  joy  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  mammon.  Poor 
apology  for  relinquishing  the  crown  of  glory,  and 
turning  aside  after  "  the  lust  of  the  eye  and  the 
pride  of  life."  And  what,  after  all,  is  the  gain  ? 
Will  it  compensate  for  the  loss  of  the  soul's  true 
felicity  ?  Will  it  make  up  for  the  consciousness  of 
the  disapprobation  of  heaven,  which,  even  in  mo- 
ments of  earthly  prosperity,  must  be  a  heavy  draw- 
back on  our  joy  ?  Shall  we  run  more  fleetly  on  our 
race  after  loading  our  pockets  with  golden  weights, 
or  wrestle  with  more  success  against  "  principali- 
ties and  powers,"  when  we  have  relaxed  our  moral 
energies  by  earthly  indulgences  ?  How  easy  it  is 
to  find  excuses  for  our  sins.  What  specious  but 
sophistical  arguments  will  Satan  urge  to  set  us  upon 
a  pursuit  of  the  world,  and  thus  rob  us  of  our  peace 
and  joy.  "  All  these  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt 
unchain  thy  affections  from  the  gospel  chariot  and 
link  them  to  mammon's  car ;  and  why  should  not 
you  have  the  means  of  enjoyment,  and  your  chil- 
dren the  means  of  support,  as  well  as  others  ?  Then, 
too,  see  how  much  good  you  can  do  with  riches ; 
what  a  field  of  benevolence  they  will  open  to  you. 


94  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

"Why  need  you  hesitate  ?  There  is  no  church 
censure  can  be  passed  upon  you  for  this  pursuit." 
The  reasoning  seems  good,  says  "the  old  man 
which  is  corrupt,"  and  I  will  act  upon  it.  So 
farewell  the  peace  of  God  until  I  have  gained  the 
peace  which  the  "  world  giveth." 


SOCIAL  PLEDGES.  95 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

SOCIAL  AND  BUSINESS  PLEDG-ES  OBSTRUCTIONS  TO 
A  CHRISTIAN'S  JOY.— SOCIAL  PLEDGKES. 

THE  Christian  professor  has  an  important  prac- 
tical point  to  settle,  namely,  how  much  intercourse 
with  the  world  is  safe  and  allowable,  and  what 
proportion  of  his  time  should  be  employed  daily  in 
communion  with  God.  , 

Such  are  the  varying  circumstances  and  tempera- 
ments of  individuals,  that  one  standard,  it  must  be 
evident,  will  not  apply  in  all  cases.  But  by  a  con- 
scientious and  quick-sighted  Christian,  the  follow- 
ing rule,  or  rather  criterion,  may  be  safely  con- 
sulted. If  he  finds  his  interest  in  the  closet  on  the 
ivaney  and  his  interest  in  worldly  business  or  social 
pleasure  gradually  deepening,  he  should  suspect  that 
too  small  a  proportion  of  time  is  given  to  devotion. 
In  this  case  he  is  evidently  too  much  in  the  world. 
His  happiness  as  a  Christian  is  thereby  endangered, 
and  he  is  called  upon  at  once  to  retrieve  lost  ground. 
His  confession  and  his  prayer  must  be,  "  Lord,  I 
have  gone  astray  like  a  lost  sheep  :  seek  thy  ser- 
vant, for  I  do  not  forget  thy  commandments." 

The  great  sources  of  temptation  in  our  day  are 
social  and  business  engagements.  These  are  entered 


06  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

into  sometimes  without  due  reflection  on  their  ten- 
dency to  weaken  the  divine  life  of  piety  in  the  soul. 
Some  Christian  people  seem  to  think,  or  rather  seem 
to  act  as  if  they  thought,  they  can  take  "  coals  of 
fire  in  the  bosom  and  the  clothes  not  be  burned." 

The  pleasures  of  social  life  are  tendered  to  the 
Christian  on  the  ground  that  they  are  innocent, 
and  therefore  allowable ;  and,  without  much  dis- 
crimination as  to  the  forms  they  assume  or  the 
deleterious  ingredients  accompanying  them,  he  is 
persuaded  to  indulge  himself  in  them,  even  at  the 
expense  of  his  pious  joys. 

The  world  knows  well  how  to  graduate  these 
social  entertainments  so  as  not  to  alarm  the  weak 
conscience,  nor  at  the  outset  to  betray  its  designs. 
But  step  by  step  is  the  unapprised  soul  led  on,  until 
it  can  relish  and  even  desire  a  scale  of  pleasurable 
excitement,  which  once  would  have  startled  its  fears 
and  driven  it  back  to  its  peaceful  and  soul-satisfying 
retirement. 

An  invitation  comes  to  Theodosia,  indited  in  the 
usual  complimentary  strain,  in  which  it  is  affirmed 
that  nothing  more  than  a  social  few  are  to  pass  an 
evening  in  a  very  quiet  way.  The  plan  is  well- 
adjusted,  and  the  timid  Christian  is  induced  to 
accede.  But  from  this  moment  there  is  an  unac- 
countable perturbation  in  her  mind.  She  has  been 
so  long  accustomed  to  the  calm  pleasures  of  home, 


SOCIAL  PLEDGES.  97 

and  especially  to  the  pure  delights  of  communion 
with  God,  that  the  bare  anticipation  of  so  different 
a  scene  seems  to  have  entirely  unsettled  her  peace. 
It  is  like  the  sudden  inundation  of  a  river  which 
a  few  hours  before  flowed  with  clear  and  gentle 
stream,  but  is  now  rushing  on  with  an  impetuous 
and  turbid  flood.  The  busy  notes  of  preparation 
are  now  heard,  and  the  mind,  torn  from  its- accus- 
tomed topics,  is  forced  to  think  of  frivolities.  How 
hard  it  is  now  to  read  with  fixed  attention  a  chap- 
ter in  the  Bible.  How  difficult  to  send  the  ' { thoughts 
that  breathe"  to  the  mercy-seat  above.  Who  can 
doubt  that  a  violent  shock  is  felt  through  the  soul. 
Away  flies  this  dove  from  the  peaceful  ark  to  dis- 
port its  wing  over  the  agitated  scene  which  is  pre- 
pared for  it.'  The  scene  is  brilliant  beyond  antici- 
pation, captivating  to  the  senses,  and  impressive  to 
the  youthful  imagination.  The  quiet  social  con- 
vention is  wonderfully  transmuted  into  the  gay  and 
almost  uproarious  assembly.  Forced  smiles  and 
flattering  compliments  have  usurped  the  place  of 
profitable  conversation,  and  every  thing  in  the  com- 
pany and  in  the  arrangements  seems  adapted  to 
banish  serious  thought  from  the  mind.  Is  Theo- 
dosia  happy  in  this  gay  circle  ?  There  is  in  her 
countenance  something  that  seems  to  say,  "  I  am 
trying  to  be  happy."  It  will  be  well  for  her  if 
this  trial  is  unsuccessful.  It  will  be  to  her  praise, 

Who  are  Happy  1  7 


AKE  THE  HAPPYf 

and  for  her  peace,  if  the  next  similar  temptation  ia 
resisted.  The  danger  is,  that  she  may  acquire  a 
fondness  for  that  which  at  first  was  rather  tolerated 
than  desired.  To  be  out  of  society,  it  will  be  sug- 
gested, is  not  her  duty :  as  if  society  was  found  alone 
where  the  crowded  contact  of  frivolous  minds  exists. 
Yes,  the  danger  is  that  she  may  be  induced  to  repeat 
the  experiment,  and  by  being  often  in  such  circum- 
stances, gradually  to  exchange  her  former  joys  for 
those  which  are  altogether  empty  and  unsatisfying. 
On  the  altar  of  mere  social  pleasure  she  may  be 
tempted  to  sacrifice  sweet  peace  of  conscience.  Her 
Bible,  her  closet,  her  walks  of  usefulness  may  be 
neglected  to  attend  to  the  calls  of  time's  most  cruel 
murderers.  "We  again  ask,  Can  she  be  happy? 

The  true  and  proper  test  of  these  social  influ- 
ences is  to  be  found  in  their  effect  on  the  devo- 
tional habits.  If  they  break  up  the  duties  of  the 
closet,  indispose  the  mind  for  meditation,  and  make 
the  Bible  a  dull  book,  we  have  reason  to  suspect 
they  are  indulged  to  an  unlawful  extent.  There  is 
then  something  in  them  positively  injurious  to  piety 
of  heart,  and  we  must  at  once  restrict  ourselves  to 
a  more  moderate  and  less  exciting  scale  of  pleas- 
ures ;  one  which  will  leave  us  at  least  as  favorably 
disposed  for  Christian  duty  as  it  found  us. 

Let  us  not  be  understood  by  these  remarks  as 
condemning  all  social  entertainments,  nor  as  argu- 


SOCIAL  PLEDGES.  99 

ing  against  a  free  interchange  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing not  strictly  religious — as  wishing  to  convert 
every  circle  of  friendship  into  a  prayer-meeting ;  but 
simply  as  putting  the  Christian  on  his  guard  against 
the  exciting  and  deleterious  influence  of  those  scenes 
where  the  direct  object  evidently  is  to  elicit  the 
sensual  and  to  crush  the  spiritual  feelings  of  man. 
Young^ Christians  should  be  cautioned  against  com- 
mitting themselves  in  social  engagements  which 
may  embarrass  their  consciences,  weaken  their 
moral  strength,  and  extinguish  their  pious  joys. 
Having  embraced  the  cross,  and  professed  that  their 
superior  attachments  are  found  in  true  piety,  they 
must  be  careful  to  impress  the  world  with  the  fact, 
that  having  tasted  of  purer  pleasures,  they  have  no 
longings  after  those  which  they  have  abandoned. 
If  they  are  easily  drawn  off  to  indulge  in  mere 
earthly  excitement,  it  will  be  inferred  that  they  are 
disappointed  in  the  power  of  piety  to  make  them 
happy,  and  thus  will  their  conduct  confirm  the 
pleasurist  in  his  fatal  choice.  Piety  will  make 
them  happy >  if  they  do  not  introduce  a  rival  to  her 
influence ;  but  how  can  any  man  expect  that  she 
will  continue  to  smile  upon  him,  if  he  take  to  his 
bosom  her  deadliest  enemy,  the  world  ?  How  can 
the  youthful  professor  just  alluded  to  expect  that 
piety  will  follow  her  to  scenes  where  its  name  is 
never  mentioned,  or  ^/"mentioned,  is  too  often  alluded 


100  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

to  only  by  way  of  jest  or  ridicule  ?  How  can  she 
expect  that  religion  will  fill  her  soul  with  its  heav- 
enly joys,  when  that  soul  is  already  preoccupied 
with  grovelling  pleasures  ?  Let  her  take  her  stand 
against  the  world's  allurements,  and  find  in  God 
and  in  his  service  her  supreme  delight,  and  then 
will  piety  pour  upon  her  its  celestial  smile  ;  and 
then,  like  the  dove  with  tired  wing,  will  she  find 
a  hand  stretched  forth  from  the  ark  to  draw  her  in 
and  give  her  a  resting-place  that  loses  none  of  its 
charms  from  its  contrast  with  earth's  tumultuous 
and  stormy  scenes. 


BUSINESS  PL£r>GE«.  101 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 

BUSINESS  PLEDG-ES. 

WHEN  a  Christian  can  mingle  in  general  society 
without  injury  to  his  piety  or  the  sacrifice  of  his 
peace,  it  may  be  proper  for  him  to  a  certain  extent 
to  indulge  the  social  propensities  ;  but  in  this  case 
it  is  implied  that  his  highest  joys  are  not  gathered 
from  such  intercourse.  Even  when  he  practices  it, 
it  must  be  on  the  principle  of  rendering  the  social 
sympathies  subservient  to  his  usefulness,  of  laying 
open  opportunities  to  do  good  among  those  with 
whom  he  associates ;  thus  making  piety  the  end, 
and  social  converse  the  medium,  through  which  it 
is  promoted.  But,  after  all,  the  Christian  will  find 
that  his  happiest  hours  are  passed  "  among  the 
saints  and  near  his  God,"  and  that  the  interchange 
of  feelings  with  those  who  are  walking  the  same 
road,  and  aiming  at  the  same  mark,  and  encoun- 
tering the  same  difficulties  and  dangers,  is  fraught 
with  more  real  satisfaction  than  mere  social  pleas- 
ures, however  refined  the  intercourse  or  intellectual 
the  conversation. 

There  is  another  point  of  no  small  importance 
which  deserves  consideration,  namely,  the  business 
pledges  or  engagements  into  which  Christians  are 


1U;>!  W^O  AlV^THci   HAPPY? 


sometimes  drawn,  to  the  injury  of  their  piety  and 
the  extinguishment  of  their  religious  joy. 

Prompted  by  the  desire  of  success  in  their  busi- 
ness, or  listening  to  injudicious  counsel,  good  men  are 
sometimes  sadly  ensnared  by  the  world.  They  will 
enter  into  engagements  which,  at  the  time  of  mak- 
ing them,  they  sincerely  intend  to  fulfil,  not  calcu- 
lating upon  the  possible  reverses  of  the  times,  nor 
the  changeful  nature  of  commercial  affairs  ;  but 
alas,  they  thus  find  themselves  often  sadly  com- 
mitted to  men  who  have  little  sympathy  with  their 
distress,  and  less  regard  still  for  their  reputation  as 
Christians.  Now  for  a  professor  of  piety  to  see 
himself  in  this  snare,  and  to  know  that  a  thousand 
tongues  are  busy  in  remarking  on  his  situation,  and 
insinuating,  perhaps,  that  "his  religion  has  made 
him  no  better  than  he  should  be,"  must  oppress  his 
spirits  and  annihilate  his  peace  of  mind.  It  is  the 
worst  policy  imaginable  for  a  pious  man  to  stand 
deeply  pledged  to  those  who  are  mere  men  of  the 
world.  He  should  prefer  even  poverty  to  this  ;  nor 
should  any  counsel  of  friends,  real  or  pretended, 
nor  any  hopes  of  worldly  gain,  however  flatter- 
ing at  the  time,  influence  him  to  such  a  course 
as  may,  in  the  fluctuations  of  trade,  place  his  char- 
acter for  integrity  in  a  suspicious  light,  and  lay 
upon  his  soul  a  crushing  anxiety.  It  is  impossible 
for  a  pious  man  to  be  happy  amid  such  embarrass- 


BUSINESS  PLEDGES.  103 

merits,  especially  if  they  have  come  upon  him  in 
consequence  of  reckless  pledges  made  under  a  too 
eager  desire  for  the  wealth  of  this  world. 

The  man  whose  heart  is  weaned  from  earthly 
attachments,  or  who  has  an  habitual  preference  for 
heavenly  things,  will  not  be  likely  to  fall  into  this 
snare  ;  but,  satisfied  with  moderate  success  in  his 
worldly  calling,  he  will  so  order  his  affairs  as,  if 
possible,  "to  owe  no  man  any  thing"  but  love. 
At  all  events,  he  will  make  no  pledges  which  he 
has  not  a  fair  prospect  of  redeeming,  so  that  in  any 
event  his  religious  character  shall  not  be  impugned, 
nor  his  religious  joys  extinguished.  Such  a  man 
will  retain  his  equanimity  of  soul,  and  go  on  his 
way  rejoicing  even  when  others  are  "careful  and 
troubled  about  many  things." 

It  has  become  "customary  to  prosecute  enlarged 
business  enterprises  by  means  of  joint-stock  com- 
panies, and  Christian  men  have  found  themselves 
often  very  painfully  committed  by  the  operation  of 
some  of  these  associations.  A  majority  of  the  com- 
pany, looking  only  at  the  gains  which  the '  asso- 
ciation was  formed  to  secure,  feel  it  to  be  a  matter 
of  small  consequence  if  in  the  prosecution  of  their 
enterprise  the  holy  Sabbath  is  violated.  This  is  la- 
mentably true  of  railroad  and  steam-boat  companies. 
Now,  at  the  hazard  of  being  considered  over-scrupu- 
lous, Christians  are  called  upon  not  to  commit  them- 


104  WHO  AltE   THE   HAPPY? 

selves  in  any  combination  whose  acts  shall  conflict 
with  the  laws  of  God.  It  will  be  of  no  avail  to 
say  that  "being  in  a  minority  they  cannot  control 
this  thing."  This  is  a  sort  of  apology  which  will 
not  stand  the  test  of  Christian  casuistry,  especially 
if,  while  uttering  it,  they  expect  to  receive  a  por- 
tion of  the  price  of  desecrated  Sabbaths.  And  if 
Christians  find  themselves  thus  implicated  in  the 
violation  of  God's  holy  day,  it  is  their  duty  as 
speedily  as  possible  to  cut  loose  from  the  alliance. 

How  many  consciences  have  been  burdened,  by 
these  indiscreet  connections,  and  how  much  Chris- 
tian peace  has  been  sacrificed  to  promote  what  is 
called  public  spirit  and  general  improvement.  The 
grand  question  for  a  pious  man  to  ask  and  to  settle 
before  he  commits  himself  in  any  business  transac- 
tion is,  whether  it  can  be  prosecuted  without  injury 
to  his  conscience  and  the  infraction  of  God's  laws, 
He  has  no  right  to  sacrifice  his  joy  as  a  Christian 
for  all  the  wealth  which  mammon  can  confer.  He 
must  "  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God."  He  "  must 
not  touch  any  unclean  thing."  He  must  avoid  not 
only  the  reality,  but  even  "  the  appearance  of  evil." 
With  these  precepts  before  him,  how  can  a  pious 
man  enter  with  any  reasonable  expectations  of  suc- 
cess upon  a  business,  either  on  his  individual  respon- 
sibility or  as  a  member  of  a  company,  which  is  to 
be  prosecuted  to  the  injury  of  public  morals  and  in 


BUSINESS  PLEDGES.  105 

violation  of  the  decalogue  ?  How  can  the  mind  of 
a  Christian  be  at  peace  wLile  such  an  imputation 
may  be  cast  upon  him  ?  To  obtain  and  to  pre- 
serve true  peace  of  mind,  we  must  keep  "a  con- 
science void  of  offence  towards  God  and  towards 
men."  And  how  can  this  be  done,  if  Christians 
will  commit  themselves  to  circumstances  which 
tend  directly  to  embarrass  conscience  and  to  weaken 
the  moral  force  of  divine  institutions  ?  How  much 
more  to  be  coveted  is  the  condition  of  the  pious  but 
untrammelled  artisan,  who,  content  with  his  daily 
earnings,  has  none  of  these  equivocal  connections  to 
tempt  him,  and  none  of  these  implicated  social  and 
business  vices  to  sully  his  profession.  He  can  sing 
his  hymn  of  praise  at  night,  and  offer  his  devout 
thanksgiving  to  God,  with  no  such  drawback  upon 
his  grateful  feelings  as  must  be  experienced  where 
heaven's  gifts  are  coveted  and  obtained  under  cir- 
cumstances the  morality  of  which  is  at  least  very 
questionable. 

Piety,  after  all,  exerts  its  influence  to  make  the 
soul  happy  only  where  that  influence  is  allowed  to 
predominate.  It  is  unreasonable  to  ask  any  more 
of  it.  It  is  requiring  too  much  to  expect  that  it 
will  kindle  up  its  joys  in  the  heart  where  every 
counteracting  influence  is  courted,  or  keep  alive 
on  the  altar  the  fires  of  devotion  when  the  cold 
flood  of  earthly  cares  and  pleasures  is  continually 


106  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

poured  upon  it  to  extinguish  them.  Nor  let  piety 
be  blamed  for  that  absence  of  felicity  which  char- 
acterizes so  many  professors,  when,  if  the  case  were 
investigated,  it  would  be  seen  that  it  is  not  piety, 
but  the  want  of  it,  which  operates  to  dim  the  lustre 
of  their  example.  Let  the  Christian  keep  aloof 
from  those  ensnaring  connections  to  which  we  have 
alluded ;  and  acting  on  the  principle  that  "  godli- 
ness with  contentment  is  great  gain,"  let  him  seek 
mainly  and  constantly  the  "  one  thing  needful," 
and  his  path,  if  it  be  less  attractive  to  earthly 
minds,  will  have  the  approbation  of  God,  and  lead 
the  soul  to  joys  that  are  pure  and  unending. 


LIGHT  READING  OPPOSED  TO  PIETY.       107 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  LIQHT.  EEADINO  OPPOSED  TO 
THE  PROGRESS  OF  PIETY. 

THE  apparatus  which  the  great  adversary  has 
brought  into  action  in  order  to  weaken  the  moral 
influence  of  Christians,  is  varied  and  well  applied. 
To  the  sources  of  evil  already  enumerated,  we  must 
add  the  flood  of  light  and  ephemeral  productions  so 
constantly  issuing  from  the  English  and  American 
press. 

These  are  not  of  course  intended  for  the  eye  and 
the  mind  of  the  Christian,  but  are  graduated  in 
their  sentiments  and  style  to  the  great  mass  of  vol- 
atile spirits  who  wish  for  something  new  and  racy 
to  kill  a  heavy  hour,  and  to  kindle  a  little  tempo- 
rary excitement. 

But,  unhappily,  they  too  often  find  their  way 
into  those  hands  which  ought  to  "  handle"  instead 
thereof  "  the  word  of  life."  The  universal  cry  is, 
"  Have  you  read  this  very  interesting  work  ?"  The 
newspapers  are  lavish  in  their  encomiums,  the 
review  enlarges  on  the  genius  of  its  author,  and  the 
fashionist  seizes  the  volume  yet  reeking  from  the 
press,  in  order  to  be  among  the  first  who  "  have  seen 
it."  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  then,  that  this 


108  WHO  ARE   THE  HAPPY? 

tempting  bait  should  find  its  way  into  the  library 
of  a  Christian,  or  be  seen  among  the  chaster  pro- 
ductions which  adorn  his  parlor  table.  What 
"every  body  reads,"  it  is  inferred,  "ought  to  be 
read  by  me.  I  shall  be  singular  not  to  have  pe- 
rused it  when  the  whole  town  are -descanting  upon 
its  merits."  So,  with  a  little  such  reasoning, 
backed  by  that  fondness  for  novelty  and  excite- 
ment which  piety  may  repress,  but  does  not  extin- 
guish, the  Bible  is  suddenly  closed,  and  the  flip- 
pant volume  is  already  riveting  the  attention. 

It  came  at  the  hour  of  evening  prayer.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  spiritual  foe,  anticipating  the  time 
when  the  Christian  was  to  have  been  on  his  knees, 
taking  by  "  violence  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  sent 
this  light-armed  enemy  to  divert  his  attention  and 
to  deprive  him  of  the  hallowed  enjoyment.  But 
will  he  allow  the  intruder  to  rob  him  of  his  devo- 
tions ?  Will  not  only  the  Bible  but  prayer  be  post- 
poned until  the  exciting  tale  is  ended  ?  Alas,  it  is  to 
be  feared,  when  once  the  fascination  has  commenced, 
that  the  charm  will  not  be  broken  even  by  the 
voice  of  conscience  muttering  in  undertones  of  mis- 
spent time  and  neglected  duties.  The  midnight 
hour  has  come,  the  last  leaf  is  cut,  and  the  book  is 
closed.  Now  ask  the  interested  reader  what  are 
his  or  her  feelings  ?  Are  they  in  tune  for  devotion  ? 
Does  the  excited  mind,  reconnijig  the  incidents  and 


LIGHT  READING  OPPOSED  TO  PIETY.       109 

revolving  the  whole  scene,  return  with  satisfaction 
to  communion  with  its  Bible  ?  Is  there  not  an 
oppressive  sense  of  wrong  which  scarcely  admits  of 
even  a  hurried  prayer  ?  Does  not  the  soul,  on  the 
succeeding  day,  carry  somewhat  of  a  depressed  air, 
as  if  violence  had  been  done  to  its  better  feelings, 
which,  like  a  wound  inflicted  on  the  body,  must  bleed 
for  a  season  ere  they  can  be  healed.  Conscience 
is  quick  to  perceive  a  wrong,  and  never  fails  to 
administer  its  retributive  reproofs.  However  ear- 
nestly some  may  plead  for  the  lawfulness  of  this 
species  of  reading,  all  Christians  will  allow  that 
they  are  not  the  happier  for  its  indulgence.  Life's 
hours  are  too  precious,  and  its  duties  too  serious 
and  responsible,  to  allow  the  one  to  be  consumed 
and  the  other  to  be  postponed  or  set  aside  for  such 
vanities. 

It  is  not  worth  our  while  here  to  discuss  the 
question,  whether  in  no  case  these  works  may  be 
innocently  perused.  The  object  of  these  pages 
being  to  promote  the  joys  of  piety,  and  to  caution 
its  professors  against  whatever  is  likely  to  impede 
them,  the  writer  feels  himself  called  upon  to  state 
only  the  general  injurious  tendency  of  such  pro- 
ductions. He  would  recommend  to  the  Christian 
who  wishes  to  avoid  every  means  of  deterioration, 
habitual  abstinence  from  this  frivolous  species  of 
reading.  If  we  are  singular  in  this  respect,  it 


HO  "WIJO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

will  be  in  exact  accordance  with  the  divine  inten- 
tion in  redeeming  us,  "that  we  might  be  a  peculiar 
people." 

There  is  an  immense  amount  of  light  periodical 
reading,  embracing  reviews,  the  periodical  miscel- 
lany, the  daily  and  weekly  newspaper,  which  would 
urge  itself  upon  the  Christian's  attention,  and  which 
is  designed  to  occupy  only  the  interstices  of  his  time. 
But  who  has  not  felt  the  pernicious  influence  of 
this  ephemeral  reading  in  absorbing  not  merely  the 
leisure  hour,  but  valuable  portions  of  the  day,  and 
invading  even  the  sacred  season  allotted  to  devo- 
tion ?  Where  this  is  the  case,  it  must  be  conceded 
that  they  become  serious  impediments  to  the  fruits 
of  piety,  and  that  no  Christian  can  look  for  peace 
and  joy  from  his  religion,  if  he  listen  to  these  rival 
claimants,  and  permit  his  mind  to  be  the  sport  of 
so  many  counteracting  influences.  Our  time  is  too 
precious  to  allow  of  such  heavy  drafts  from  these 
importunate  visitors,  who,  in  many  cases,  have 
nothing  to  recommend  them  but  a  fine  dress  and  a 
flippant  tongue.  A  Christian  mind  cannot  give 
some  of  them  audience  without  derogating  from  its 
dignity,  nor  converse  intimately  with  them  without 
acquiring  an  injurious  taint  from  the  contact. 

The  writer  would  be  understood  as  admitting 
exceptions  ;  and,  far  from  a  general  proscription  of 
periodical  works,  he  would  recommend  a  judicious 


LIGHT  READING  OPPOSED  TO  PIETY.       Ill 

selection  as  highly  important  and  useful.  But  in 
this  case  he  must  urge  the  importance  of  giving 
them  their  legitimate  place  as  to  the  interest  which 
they  claim,  and  the  time  which  is  employed  in  pe- 
rusing them.  If  there  is  a  fondness  for  such  reading 
which  weakens  our  attachment  to  the  Bible  and  to 
works  of  practical  piety,  we  have  reason  to  suspect 
that  already  their  influence  has  become  injurious. 
If  important  Christian  duties  are  neglected  or  post- 
poned to  gratify  this  thirst  for  news  or  the  mere 
indulgence  of  our  taste,  it  is  evident  we  have  allowed 
this  reading  a  place  which  its  comparative  insig- 
nificance and  our  Christian  obligations  will  not 
justify.  We  thus  allow  it  to  rob  us  of  our  peace  of 
conscience,  the  possession  of  which  is  indispensable 
to  our  pious  joy.  How  admirably  does  piety  adjust 
these  varying  claims,  giving  to  man  a  scale  by 
which  he  can  know  how  much  importance  to  attach 
to  each,  and  in  what  place  the  several  duties  and 
pleasures  of  life  shall  fall.  If  we  attempt  to  reverse 
this  order,  or  fail  to  recognize  the  great  principle  on 
which  it  is  founded,  to  "  seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God,"  we  at  once  put  "  darkness  for  light  and  light 
for  darkness ;"  we  "  fall  into  temptation  and  a 
snare  ;"  our  Christian  peace  is  interrupted,  and  we 
"  pierce  ourselves  through  with  many  sorrows. " 
Aware  of  this,  the  truly  devoted  and  happy  Chris- 
tian determines  on  a  systematic  life,  in  which  every 


112  WHO   ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

duty  shall  have  precedence  according  to  its  impor- 
tance ;  time  shall  be  so  allotted  as  to  meet  and 
settle  the  highest  claims  first,  and  even  the  inno- 
cent gratifications  shall  have  a  place,  but  not  such 
a  place  as  shall  disqualify  the  soul  for  its  great 
work,  or  weaken  its  desires  for  the  pure  joys  of 
devotion. 


CONTROVERSY  OPPOSED  TO  PIOUS  JOY.   H3 


CHAPTER   XX. 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  CONTROVERSY  OPPOSED  TO  THE 
EXERCISE   OF  PIOUS  JOY. 

THERE  is  but  one  more  positive  obstruction  to 
the  joy  of  salvation  which  shall  claim  the  consider- 
ation of  the  reader — it  is  the  spirit  of  religious  con- 
tention. 

"  Offences  must  come,"  and  differences  of  opinion 
in  relation  to  religious  doctrines  will  exist,  and 
hence  we  may  infer  that  the  collision  of  opposing 
sects,  and  of  members  of  the  same  sect,  with  shades 
of  difference,  will  operate  more  or  less  among  the 
armies  of  Israel.  This  is  owing  in  part  to  human 
infirmity,  but  much  more  perhaps  to  human  de- 
pravity. 

It  is  not  in  place  here  to  enter  fully  into  the  cir- 
cumstances which  allow,  and  in  some  cases  even 
oblige  good  men  to  engage  in  the  polemics  of 
religion.  None  can  doubt  that  such  occasions  do 
exist,  and  that  Christians  would  betray  their  high 
trust  if  they  were  to  suffer  in  silence  divine  truth  to 
be  impugned  and  souls  to  be  endangered  by  its  per- 
version. But  with  this  concession,  how  evident  is 
it  that  controversy  is  entered  upon  in  many  cases 
where  neither  the  amount  of  difference  nor  the 

Who  are  Happy  I  O 


114  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

causes  of  provocation  are  sufficient  to  justify  it. 
All  the  sad  consequences  on  the  peace  of  Christians, 
and  in  prejudicing  religion  in  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
are  incurred  when  the  diversity  of  belief  is  so  unim- 
portant as,  by  the  judgment  of  both  parties,  invali- 
dates not  the  claim  of  either  to  true  piety.  If  all 
such  cases  were  at  once  withdrawn  from  the  field 
of  conflict,  and  those  left  which  regard  only  funda- 
mental principles,  what  a  sudden  calm  would  suc- 
ceed the  now  agitated  and  tempestuous  scene.  How 
soon  would  the  ark  settle  down  upon  its  resting- 
place,  the  waters  abate,  and  the  bow  of  promise 
gladden  our  eyes. 

If  this  spirit  of  controversy  could  be  confined  to 
the  mettlesome  leaders  in  the  affray,  it  would  save 
piety  from  a  vast  amount  of  injury.  But  when  the 
spirit  of  strife  and  contention  is  made  to  pervade 
large  sections  of  the  church,  and  the  humble  Chris- 
tian, even  in  his  retirement,  is  compelled  to  hear 
and  to  respond  to  the  startling  notes  of  the  war- 
trumpet,  to  buckle  on  his  armor  and  rush  to  the 
conflict,  God's  Israel  becomes  like  a  vast  military 
encampment,  where  nothing  is  to  be  heard  but  the 
preparation-notes  of  battle,  or  the  clangor  of  resound- 
ing arms. 

Now,  as  the  deadliest  strife  among  nations  often 
derives  its  origin  from  slight  causes,  so  this  ecclesi- 
astical warfare  is  waged  many  times  for  the  settle- 


CONTROVERSY  OPPOSED  TO  PIETY.         H5 

merit  of  points  where  the  actual  difference  is  the 
most  difficult  point  of  all  to  be  ascertained.  The 
fierceness  of  the  struggle,  however,  instead  of  being, 
as  one  would  suppose,  proportioned  to  the  magni- 
tude of  the  errors,  is  often  greater  as  the  points  of 
difference  diminish.  How  does  piety  languish,  and 
how  do  her  joys  fade  away,  before  this  collision  of 
excited  minds  ;  in  which,  instead  of  provoking  one 
another  to  "  love  and  to  good  works,"  the  main 
effort  appears  to  be  to  enlist  the  greatest  number  of 
suffrages  to  a  party,  and  to  wield  the  mightiest  in- 
fluence. The  avenues  of  Zion,  like  the  open  gates 
of  Janus,  are  ringing  with  the  tramp  of  combatants, 
or  echoing  to  the  shouts  of  victory.  Party  leaders 
seem  resolved  that  no  Christian  shall  stand  neutral 
in  any  given  strife  ;  and  that,  be  the  points  at  issue 
more  or  less  important,  each  one  must  declare 
openly  for  or  against  the  party.  They  take  their 
stand  on  the  high  places,  like  Saul  at  Gibeah,  and 
hewing  their  sacrifice  in  pieces,  send  them  abroad 
over  the  land,  declaring  that  "  so  shall  it  be  done 
unto  "  the  man  who  rallies  not  under  their  standard. 
The  Christian  who  is  enabled  to  stand  aloof  from 
this  warfare  is  privileged  indeed.  It  is  wholly  ad- 
verse to  the  growth  of  piety,  and  if  participated  in 
to  any  considerable  extent,  must  inevitably  rob  the 
soul  of  its  felicity.  "Who  can  enumerate  the  topics 
of  religious  strife  which  in  various  assemblies  and 


116  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

through  various  publications  are  now  thrust  upon 
the  attention  of  the  church  ?  How  many  combina- 
tions are  formed  with  a  view  to  coerce  almost  the 
Christian  into  their  ranks.  What  various  conflict- 
ing claims  are  presented  among  members  of  the 
same  communion.  The  excitement  which  all  this 
produces  cannot  be  friendly  to  the  development  of 
spiritual  religion.  It  cannot  promote  "the  peace- 
able fruits  of  righteousness,"  except  on  the  principle 
that  God  may  overrule  one  of  the  greatest  afflictions 
of  our  Zion  to  the  furtherance  of  her  joy. 

There  is  nothing  in  our  religion  which  tends  to 
produce  this  spirit  of  contention.  It  is  pacific  in  its 
design  and  in  its  commands.  The  soul  that  has 
felt  its  influence  is  full  of  love  to  all  mankind.  It 
takes  its  tone  from  Him  who  came  "  not  to  destroy 
men's  lives,  but  to  save  them." 

What  a  variety  of  beautiful  texts  might  be  cited 
to  show  how  opposite  to  this  contentious  spirit  is 
the  whole  tenor  of  the  gospel*  "  A  new  command- 
ment I  give  unto  you,  That  ye  love  one  another." 
"  Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his  neighbor  ;  therefore 
love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law."  "  Be  kindly  affec- 
tioned  one  to  another  with  brotherly  love  ;  in  honor 
preferring  one  another."  "  Be  pitiful,  be  courteous." 
"  The  servant  of  the  Lord  must  not  strive,  but  be 
gentle  unto  all  men."  "  While  one  saith,  I  am  of 
Paul,  and  another,  I  am  of  Apollos,  are  ye  not 


CONTROVERSY  OPPOSED  TO  PIETY.        117 

carnal  ?"  "  Be  perfect,  "be  of  one  mind,  live  in 
peace."  "  Charity  is  the  bond  of  perfectness." 
"  Charity  suffer eth  long,  and  is  kind.  Charity  is 
not  easily  provoked,  beareth  all  things,  hopeth  all 
things,  endureth  all  things."  "  And  now  abideth 
faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three ;  but  the  greatest 
of  these  is  charity" 

In  view  of  the  manifest  injury  to  the  soul  which 
the  spirit  of  religious  controversy  inflicts,  and  with 
these  passages  of  Scripture  before  us,  how  can  we 
expect  to  retain  our  Christian  peace  and  joy  while 
mingling  in  the  conflict  ? 

But  it  may  be  replied,  "  Truth  must  be  main- 
tained, and  it  is  necessary  that  some  individuals 
should  consent,  even  against  their  wish,  to  stand 
forth  as  her  champions."  This  has  already  been 
conceded ;  but  with  the  concession  it  is  still  lament- 
ably true  that  the  present  times  are  fearfully  rife 
with  causes  of  contention  which,  in  themselves  com- 
paratively unimportant,  are  magnified  to  that  de- 
gree, that  the  struggle  is  as  heated  and  violent  as  if 
the  very  ark  of  God  was  threatened  with  annihila- 
tion. This  spirit  is  breathed  into  the  church  all 
over  the  land,  and  operates  like  the  passage  of  a 
tornado  to  uproot  and  desolate  the  verdant  beauties 
of  Zion  ;  or,  if  this  figure  be  too  strong,  we  will  call 
it  a  kind  of  malaria  which,  insinuating  itself  into 
every  section  of  the  church,  causes  cold  ehiverings 


118  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY  ? 

and  feeble  pulses  in  men  who  were  wont  to  rejoice 
in  the  full  vigor  of  health.  Such  has  been  its  effect 
in  our  land,  and  piety  has  greatly  declined  in  her 
attractiveness,  and  been  deprived  of  much  of  her 
influences,  while  a  scoffing  world  has  felt  at  liberty 
to  cavil  at  our  faith  and  to  question  the  sincerity  of 
our  professions.  Piety  has  been  blamed  for  that 
which  she  has  all  the  while  been  aiming  to  destroy, 
a  spirit  of  unholy  contention  ;  and  it  becomes  true 
Christians  to  rescue  her  from  these  aspersions  by 
exemplifying  the  charity  which  she  recommends. 


FAVORABLE  CIRCUMSTANCES.      119 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

CIRCUMSTANCES   FAVORABLE   TO  THE   PROMOTION 
OF  PIOUS  JOY. 

IT  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  pages,  that 
the  charge  which  is  sometimes  -preferred  against 
religion  is  wholly  without  foundation :  that  if  a 
cloud  rest  upon  a  Christian's  brow,  or  any  gloom 
pervade  his  soul,  it  is  not  piety  that  produces  it, 
but  it  comes,  in  most  instances,  from  the  obstruc- 
tions alluded  to,  which  prevent  piety  from  exerting 
its  legitimate  influence. 

Only  such  hinderances  have  been  noticed  as  are 
prominent  in  our  day,  and  peculiar  somewhat  to  our 
age  and  country.  If  Christians  will  avoid  these, 
and  give  to  piety  an  unobstructed  sway  over  the 
soul,  she  will  doubtless  soon  produce  those  lovely 
fruits  which  in  the  Scriptures  are  ascribed  to  her 
influence.  "  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy, 
peace,  long- suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith, 
meekness,  temperance."  For  illustration  on  this 
point  we  may  advert  again  to  the  analogy  of  nature. 
When  it  is  intended  to  cultivate  the  fruits  of  the 
earth,  or  to  call  forth  the  flowers  and  foliage  which 
are  to  adorn  it,  the  first  important  step  is  to  remove 
the  obstructions  and  place  -the  desired  vegetation  in 


1UO  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

circumstances  favorable  for  its  growth.  The  nature 
of  the  soil  is  carefully  attended  to.  The  exposed- 
ness  of  the  plant  to  boisterous  winds  or  nipping 
frosts  is  considered.  Every  precautionary  method 
is  considered  to  prop  or  to  bind  it,  to  lay  it  open  to 
the  sun,  or  to  shield  it  from  a  too  intense  action  o{ 
his  rays.  It  cannot  be  reasonably  expected  that 
the  plant  will  thrive  and  put  on  its  lovely  dress 
without  all  this  care  and  culture.  If  the  soil  is 
overgrown  with  weeds  and  obstructed  by  stones,  or 
if  this  delicate  plant  is  left  to  be  beaten  by  the 
winds  or  smitten  by  the  sunbeam,  how  can  we  look 
for  the  natural  and  proper  development  of  its 
beauties  ? 

Nor  is  it  otherwise  with  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 
The  soul  that  is  left  exposed  to  every  adverse  influ- 
ence will  present  a  moral  condition  analogous  to 
that  of  the  neglected  plant.  Chilling  winds  will  in- 
vade it.  Blighting  frosts  will  silently  wither  it,  and 
if  it  still  retain  some  appearance  of  life,  it  will  be 
so  stinted  in  its  growth  and  so  barren  in  its  aspect 
as  to  excite  a  melancholy  feeling  in  the  beholder. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  "  God's  husbandry"  is  prop- 
erly cultivated,  and  the  tender  plants  are  shielded 
from  unfriendly  influences — if  the  culture  is  in  any 
degree  proportioned  to  the  importance  and  excel- 
lency of  the  expected  fruit,  there  will  not  be  a 
more  attractive  sight  in  the  universe  than  these 


FAVORABLE   CIRCUMSTANCES.  121 

"  trees  of  righteousness "  flourishing  with  well- 
watered  roots  and  un withering  leaves. 

If  God  has  given  us  facilities  in  the  one  field,  so 
has  he  in  the  other ;  and  if  in  the  one  case  the 
reward  is  proportioned  to  the  care  and  labor,  it  is 
no  less  certain  and  generous  in  the  other. 

In  the  productions  of  the  earth  we  have  the  rain 
and  the  dew,  the  light  and  the  shade,  the  heat  and 
the  cold,  all  operating  in  such  due  proportion  on  the 
soil  as  to  warm  into  life  and  call  forth  into  beauti- 
ful forms  that  which  is  the  object  of  our  care. 
And  is  it  otherwise  with  the  soul  whose  graces  are 
to  be  developed  under  a  faithful  spiritual  culture  ? 
Has  not  God  promised,  with  equal  explicitness, 
"  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap  ?"  Has  he  not  declared,  that  "  as  the  rain 
cometh  down  from  heaven  and  returneth  not 
thither,  but  watereth  the  earth  and  maketh  it 
bring  forth,  that  it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower  and 
bread  to  the  eater,  so  shall  his  word  be  that  goeth 
forth  out  of  his  mouth  ?"  As  certainly  as  the  dew 
distils  on  the  flower,  and  the  sunbeam  falls  upon 
and  enlivens  it,  so  surely  will  God  give  his  Spirit 
to  refresh,  and  the  light  of  his  countenance  to  cheer 
that  soul  "who  diligently  seeketh  him." 

To  this  established  connection  between  the  use 
of  means  and  the  certain  production  of  pious  fruits, 
we  must  add  the  very  extraordinary  facilities  for 


122  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

the  full  development  of  the  Christian  graces  which 
are  found  in"  our  highly  favored  land. 

If  the  Christian  does  not  daily  advance  in  his 
upward  path,  it  will  not  be  for  the  want  of  means 
and  appliances.  If  any  obscurity  rest  upon  his  soul, 
it  will  not  be  owing  to  a  diminution  of  light  in  the 
moral  atmosphere.  "  The  Sun  of  righteousness  has 
arisen  upon  us  with  healing  in  his  wings."  There 
is  a  flood- tide  of  salvation  poured  down  upon  us. 
No  people  on  earth  are  more  richly  endowed  in  this 
respect.  The  manna  falls  upon  us  daily,  and  in 
great  abundance.  The  pillar  of  cloud  is  before  us 
by  day,  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night.  The  silver 
trumpet  of  the  Levites  is  ringing  continually  in  our 
ears,  and  the  cleft  rock  is  pouring  out  at  our  feet  the 
waters  of  life.  Is  there  any  reason  why  we  should 
not  joyfully  march  on  our  way  ? 

To  constitute  the  happy  Christian,  two  depart- 
ments of  labor  must  be  occupied.  The  one  respects 
the  duties  which  we  owe  to  ourselves,  and  embraces 
the  exercises  of  the  closet,  such  as  prayer,  self- 
examination,  and  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  Theso 
are  of  primary  importance  ;  and  it  is  out  of  the 
question  to  expect  pious  joy  where  they  are  neglected 
or  discharged  in  a  superficial  manner.*  But  scarcely 
less  important,  especially  in  forming  the  character 

*  These  duties  have  been  recommended  and  illustrated  iu 
a  former  work — the  "Advice  to  a  Young  Christian." 


FAVORABLE  CIRCUMSTANCES.      123 

of  the  happy  Christian,  is  the  department  of  labor 
which  respects  the  good  of  others,  which  aims  to 
carry  out  our  influence  upon  all  whom  it  is  possible 
to  reach  and  to  bless.  The  spirit  of  the  gospel  is  not 
evinced  nor  its  joys  experienced,  without  a  faithful 
occupation  of  our  talents  and  a  conformity  by  self- 
denying  labors  to  Him  "  who  went  about  doing  good." 
"  To  do  good  unto  all  men  as  we  have  opportunity," 
is  the  grand  rule  ;  estimating  the  pressure  of  the 
obligation  according  to  the  nature  of  the  good  and 
the  ability  and  opportunity  to  bestow  it.  Now  the 
Christian  who  is  faithful  in  the  one  department, 
will  be  very  likely  to  be  faithful  in  the  other.  He 
who  lives  near  the  private  altar,  and  gathers  there 
his  motives  and  feeds  there  his  zeal,  will  be  ready 
to  embrace  every  qpening  to  be  useful  which  the 
providence  of  God  shall  disclose.  He  will  not  be 
"  standing  all  the  day  idle,"  and  crying,  with  folded 
hands,  "  No  man  hath  hired  me." 

It  has  pleased  Providence  to  place  before  his 
church  in  our  day  facilities  for  doing  good,  and  for 
extending  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness, 
more  numerous  and  in  greater  variety  than  per- 
haps were  ever  known  before.  There  is  hence  no 
apology  for  indolence  or  inactivity.  Not  one  in 
the  spiritual  community  can  say,  "  There  is  nothing 
for  me  to  do."  The  work  is  graduated  to  the  ability 
of  every  saint,  not  excepting  the  most  indigent. 


124  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

Each  may,  if  he  think  proper,  select  that  depart- 
ment of  benevolence  which  is  best  suited  to  his 
circumstances.  Such  being  the  case,  it  is  evident 
that  no  pious  person  can  be  happy  if  he  withhold 
good  from  him  that  needeth,  when  God  has  put  it 
in  his  power  to  do  this  good ;  for,  "  to  him  that 
knoweth  to  do  good  and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is 
sin." 


THE   USEFUL  CHRISTIAN  HAPPY.  125 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  USEFUL  CHRISTIAN  HAPPY. 

IT  is  not  intended  to  prescribe  to  the  reader  the 
ways  or  methods  which  it  is  his  particular  duty  to 
adopt,  in  order  to  exert  a  proper  Christian  influence 
upon  others,  but  rather  to  exhibit  the  necessity  of 
uniting  good  works  with  devotional  habits.  This 
union,  we  maintain,  is  indispensable  to  a  full  and 
scriptural  development  of  true  piety.  Without  it, 
we  cannot  fulfil  the  commands  of  God,  nor  tread  in 
the  footsteps  of  our  Redeemer.  "To  do  good,  and 
to  communicate,  forget  not ;  for  with  such  sacrifices 
God  is  well  pleased."  It  is  therefore  a  settled  prin- 
ciple, that  no  Christian  can  be  happy  who  is  not 
useful ;  indeed,  it  would  admit  of  a  question,  whether 
any  soul  can  be  the  subject  of  renewing  grace,  who 
is  not  in  some  way  engaged  in  direct  acts  of  benevo- 
lence. Yet  it  must  be  confessed,  that  many  profes- 
sors of  religion  seem  to  find  some  apology  for  inac- 
tion in  all  that  respects  self-denying  efforts  to  extend 
the  influence  of  piety. 

The  facilities  for  putting  forth  this  influence  have 
been  alluded  to,  and  ought  to  be  well  considered  by 
all  who  have  enlisted  "  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus 
Christ."  It  is  needless  to  enumerate  them,  since 


126  WHO  ARE   THE  HAPPY? 

they  are  familiar  to  all.  They  come  to  our  very 
doors,  and  tender  themselves  to  our  acceptance.  We 
can  do  good  by  our  money,  by  our  labor,  by  our 
conversation,  and  by  our  prayers.  We  can  do  good 
in  the  family,  in  the  neighborhood,  in  the  church, 
and  throughout  the  world .  Numerous  channels  are 
opened  in  the  providence  of  God,  through  which  we 
can  carry  out  Christian  influence  not  only  over  our 
own  land,  but  to  the  most  distant  and  degraded  spot 
on  earth.  Our  charities  can  take  wing  and  light 
upon  the  very  place  where  we  think  them  most 
needed.  We  may  find  the  objects  of  our  benevo- 
lent regard  already  arranged  and  classified,  so  that 
we  have  only  to  select  where  and  upon  whom  that 
benevolence  shall  flow,  and  the  work  may  com- 
mence. With  such  opportunities  of  influence,  it  is 
clear  that  none  but  he  who  avails  himself  of  some 
of  them,  and  endeavors  to  acquire  and  sustain  the 
character  of  a  faithful  servant,,  can  be  a  happy 
Christian.  God  has  done  all  this  to  invite  us  to 
become  coworkers  with  himself  in  accomplishing 
the  grand  designs  of  his  mercy.  If  we  hold  back, 
or  if  we  leave  the  work  to  others,  while  under  the 
influence  of  some  futile  apology  we  seek  the  things 
of  earth,  it  is  a  very  dark  sign  against  us,  and  we 
may  well  tremble  under  the  apprehension  of  being 
addressed  at  last  as  "  wicked  and  slothful  servants." 
On  this  subject,  however,  there  is  room  for  many 


THE  USEFUL  CHRISTIAN  HAPPY.  127 

modifications  of  personal  duty  and  responsibility. 
Christians  are  placed  in  very  different  circumstances 
as  to  their  means  of  usefulness  and  their  opportuni- 
ties for  doing  good.  All  these  circumstances  the  eye 
of  heaven  notices  and  considers.  Some  are  poor, 
and  their  responsibilities  are  modified  by  their  lowly 
condition.  In  them  we  look  for  the  virtues  of  in- 
dustry, frugality,  and  temperance,  but  cannot  expect 
them  to  give  their  time  or  their  money,  except  as 
they  consider  it  a  privilege  to  contribute  their  mite, 
which  it  undoubtedly  is  even  to  the  poorest.  But 
such  can  pray,  can  meekly  reprove  vice,  can  let  the 
light  of  their  example- — not  the  less  attractive  for 
their  poverty — shine  upon  their  ungodly  neighbors. 
Some  are  mothers — deeply  responsible  and  highly 
useful  condition — with  young  immortals  cast  upon 
their  care,  whose  moral  training  no  circumstances, 
save  those  of  dire  necessity,  should  tempt  them  to 
neglect.  There  is  no  province  on  earth  more  im- 
portant than  this.  We  will  excuse  the  Christian 
mother,  under  the  pressure  of  maternal  responsi- 
bility, from  many,  if  not  all  the  conspicuous  chari- 
ties of  the  day.  If  she  is,  under  God,  moulding  the 
character  of  her  offspring,  in  order  to  qualify  them 
for  life's  duties  and  for  heaven's  eternal  joys,  we 
will  say  to  her,  "  Go  on,  and  God  be  with  you ; 
and  although  some  may  stand  forth  more  in  the 
sunlight  of  observation,  while  you  are  laboring  in 


128  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

the  shade,  the  end  will  prove  that  your  vocation 
was  at  least  as  important  as  theirs." 

The  invalid  and  the  aged  are  exempted,  by  the 
providence  of  God,  from  some  labors,  but  are  under 
obligation  to  perform  others  of  which  even  their 
circumstances  may  admit.  The  great  and  all- 
important  point  is  to  have  the  spirit  of  doing  good — 
an  eye  that  watches  for  opportunities,  and  a  hand 
ready  to  seize  on  them  as  they  are  unfolded.  With 
this  spirit  in  exercise,  no  Christian  will  be  at  a  loss 
for  occasions  to  let  his  light  shine,  nor  for  subjects 
on  which  to  expend  benevolent  action. 

We  are  not  opposed  to  a  division  of  labor,  but  we 
do  object  to  the  method  pursued  by  some  Christians, 
of  selecting  a  favorite  department  of  benevolence, 
and  aiming  to  carry  it  forward  under  the  idea  of 
its  paramount  claims.  Such  a  course  can  seldom 
be  pursued  without  prejudice  to  some  other  good 
cause  ;  and  if  others  who  prefer  a  different  depart- 
ment adopt  the  same  course,  the  whole  subject  of 
public  charities  is  placed  before  the  world  in  a 
prejudiced  light. 

A  Christian's  usefulness  is  not  always  in  propor- 
tion to  the  space  he  fills  in  the  public  eye,  nor  to 
the  amount  of  discursive  influence  which  he  may 
be  able  to  cast  abroad  over  the  wide  field  of  exer- 
tion. Some  men  may  deem  it  their  duty  to  sow 
the  seed  by  all  waters.  With  native  ardor  of  tern- 


THE   USEFUL  CHRISTIAN  HAPPY.  129 

perament,  and  with  a  zeal,  kindled  we  trust  by  a 
coal  from  heaven's  altar,  they  may  take  wing  and 
visit  a  thousand  places,  and  make  their  influence 
felt  over  a  boundless  space.  The  seed  which  they 
scatter  may  in  some  instances  take  root,  but  the 
real  amount  of  good  accomplished  in  such  cases 
cannot  be  ascertained.  Others  may  select  for  them- 
selves a  limited  spot  in  the  vineyard,  and  in  humble 
dependence  on  God,  apply  their  energies  to  its  cul- 
tivation. In  instances  of  this  description  the  work 
is  with  less  public^  observation,  but  the  amount  of 
actual  good  accomplished  may  exceed  that  of  the 
more  brilliant  and  discursive  laborer.  It  has  this 
advantage  also,  that  the  fruits  are  visible  ;  and  the 
moral  change,  as  in  the  case  of  a  barren  spot  in 
nature  reclaimed  to  fertility,  is  the  more  gratifying 
from  the  recollection  of  its  former  disheartening 
appearance. 

Without,  then,  assigning  to  a  Christian  the  pecu- 
liar field  which  he  shall  cultivate,  we  would  simply 
urge  him  to  be  useful  in  the  circumstances  in  which 
God  has  placed  him — to  shrink  from  no  labor  which 
Providence  seems  to  impose,  nor  to  anticipate  hap- 
piness except  in  the  diligent  discharge  of  all  his 
duties.  "  Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it 
with  thy  might ;  for  there  is  no  work,  nor  device, 
nor  knowledge,  nor  wisdom  in  the  grave,  whither 
thou  goest." 

Who  nre  Happy !  9 


ISO  WHC  ARE  THE 


CHAPTER   XXIII, 

THE  JOY  OF  CONTENTMENT. 

"  GODLINESS  with  contentment,"  says  S-1.  Paul, 
"  is  great  gain."  It  would  seem  from  this  declara- 
tion as  if  godliness  was  not  always  accompanied  by 
contentment.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however, 
that  the  design  and  tendency  of  true  piety  is  to  pro- 
mote a  contented  spirit,  and  where  this  effect  does 
not  take  place,  we  are  obliged  to  suppose  something 
peculiar  in  the  disposition  of  the  individual  to  thwart 
its  influence. 

Instances  might  be  cited  where  the  evidence  of 
piety  is  not  wanting,  and  yet  with  such  constitu- 
tional peculiarities  as  to  hinder  its  action  in  a  given 
direction.  There  is  an  "  easily  besetting  sin"  which 
piety  must  combat  for  a  great  length  of  time  ere  it 
be  brought  into  habitual  subjection.  How  intimate 
the  connection  is  between  this  "  besetting  sin"  and 
the  physical  weaknesses  of  the  individual,  it  is  not 
easy  to  say  ;  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  thai  some 
sins  acquire  power  from  this  connection.  There 
are  also  hereditary  infirmities,  and  the  secret  influ- 
ence of  disease,  which  operate  upon  certain  minds, 
and  counteract  the  tendency  of  religion  to  soothe 
and  to  cheer  them. 


JOY  OF  CONTENTMENT.  131 

How  diversified  are  the  natural  dispositions  of 
men.  Some  are  impetuous  and  ardent,  and  others 
are  sluggish  in  their  affections  and  feelings.  Some 
are  restless  in  whatsoever  situation  they  may  be  ; 
and  others,  when  once  in  a  particular  place  or  call- 
ing, seem  never  to  wish  for  any  change.  Now, 
when  piety  takes  effect  on  these  varying  dispositions, 
it  modifies,  but  does  not  completely  change  them. 
The  ardent  disposition  will  evince  itself  in  religion 
as  it  did  before  in  earthly  pleasures,  and  the  man 
of  a  dull,  lethargic  spirit  will  be  likely  to  move  on 
with  timid  pace  in  the  new  path  which  he  has 
begun  to  travel.  The  restless  temper,  ever  seeking 
some  change,  will  find  more  difficulty  in  cultivating 
the  grace  of  contentment,  even  after  embracing  a 
life  of  piety,  than  the  even-tempered  man,  whose 
very  nature  disinclines  him  to  change. 

It  is  clear  also,  that  we  cannot  estimate  truly  the 
strength  of  piety  from  a  comparison  of  individuals 
on  a  given  point.  The  two  cases  alluded  to  afford 
an  illustration  of  this.  In  the  one  case,  content- 
ment would  argue  a  higher  degree  of  piety,  because 
strong  constitutional  tendencies  are  to  be  overcome. 
In  the  other,  it  would  furnish  less  decisive  evidence 
of  piety,  inasmuch  as  the  constitutional  tendencies 
rather  favor  than  oppose  the  exercise  of  this  virtue. 
In  this  latter  case,  godliness  is  as  it  were  super- 
added  to  contentment,  and  there  is  even  under  these 


132  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

circumstances  "great  gain."  The  life  of  such  an 
individual  flows  on  in  a  noiseless  current,  and  is  on 
the  whole  tranquil  and  happy.  But  in  the  former 
example,  if  to  godliness  the  individual  can  add  con- 
tentment, it  is  a  still  greater  gain  ;  for  it  is  the  vic- 
tory of  religious  principle  over  powerful  constitu- 
tional impediments,  and  the  joys  of  the  triumph  are 
added  to  the  peaceful  virtue  which  has  been  earned 
after  a  hard-fought  battle. 

If  we  discover  our  besetting  sin  it  is  one  impor- 
tant point  gained,  and  our  duty  is  then  plainly 
before  us,  by  God's  grace,  to  enter  the  lists  against  it. 

How  many  Christians  are  uneasy  and  restless 
under  the  circumstances  in  which  Providence  has 
placed  them.  If  they  have  godliness,  it  is  mani- 
festly not  accompanied  as  habitually  as  it  ought  to 
be  by  contentment.  It  need  not  be  said  that  pious 
joy  is  inseparable  from  a  contented  frame  of  mind  ; 
nor  that,  where  the  soul  is  dissatisfied  with  its 
allotment  in  life,  there  is  envy  and  even  secret 
murmuring. 

On  no  point,  perhaps,  are  Christians  more  fre- 
quently tempted  than  on  this.  They  see  other  men 
pursuing,  with  unobstructed  and  successful  career, 
the  wealth  and  the  honors  of  the  world.  They 
look  upon  their  outward  estate,  and  wonder  why 
Providence  should  have  made  such  a  difference  ; 
not  remembering  that  this  very  difference  may  be 


JOY  OF  CONTENTMENT.  133 

in  their  favor,  and  that  while  the  worldling  is 
receiving  his  good  things  in  this  life,  God  is  pre- 
paring something  better  for  the  Christian.  Even 
the  psalmist  was  almost  ready  to  call  in  question 
the  rectitude  of  the  divine  government,  "  when  he 
saw  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked."  But  his  "  envy 
at  the  foolish"  vanished  quickly  when  he  "went 
into  the  sanctuary  of  God."  There  he  "  saw  their 
end."  He  saw  the  "  slippery  places  "  of  power  and 
wealth  without  godliness,  and  he  condemned  him- 
self for  being  "  ignorant"  on  a  point  so  plain. 

It  has  pleased  God,  for  the  good  of  his  people  and 
in  love  to  their  souls,  to  appoint  most  of  them  a 
lowly  lot  in  life.  He  has  thus  exempted  them  from 
"the  deceitfulness  of  riches,"  and  from  many  of  the 
corroding  cares  of  the  world.  Full  scope  is  thus 
given  for  the  development  of  their  piety,  and  a  com- 
paratively unobstructed  course  is  laid  open  to  them 
to  run  their  Christian  race.  Shall  any  complain  at 
this,  or  sigh  to  think  that  God  has  not  hedged  up 
their  way  to  heaven  by  the  conflicts  of  ambition  or 
the  oppressive  anxiety  which  is  connected  with 
golden  stores  ?  Only  let  them  fully  understand 
their  favorable  position  in  life,  and  they  will  readily 
perceive,  that  if  piety  is  to  be  the  fountain  of  theii 
felicity,  their  situation  is  much  the  most  favorable 
for  realizing  its  joys.  In  view  of  it  one  is  ready  to 
exclaim,  in  the  language  of  Virgil  depicting  the 


134  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

happy  state  of  the  humble  swain,  and  which  is 
even  more  applicable  to  humble  and  moderately 
endowed  Christians,  "  0  fortunatos  nimium,  sua  si 
bona  norint" — Thrice  happy  they  who  appreciate 
the  blessings  of  their  lot.  Happy  indeed  would 
they  be,  if  they  could  appreciate  the  good  which 
God  has  connected  with  their  state,  and  learn  that 
divine  lesson  which  Paul  had  learned,  "  in  whatso- 
ever situation  he  was,  therewith  to  be  content." 

The  state  of  mind  which  we  are  recommending 
is  not  opposed  to  lawful  exertion,  put  forth  in  order 
to  better  our  outward  condition.  Christianity  in  no 
instance  paralyzes  the  springs  of  activity  and  honor- 
able enterprise.  Nor  does  contentment  imply  the 
duty  of  remaining  in  an  inferior  station  when  Prov- 
idence plainly  says,  "  Go  up  higher."  A  Christian 
may  make  this  advance  without  any  discontent- 
ment with  his  former,  and  perhaps  inferior  position. 
If  God  has  appointed  to  him  the  humblest  occupa- 
tion or  the  most  obscure  post  of  labor,  he  is  bound 
to  be  satisfied,  and  on  the  ground  that  it  is  God's 
appointment ;  but  he  is  not  compelled  to  remain  in 
it  when  the  same  sovereign  hand  opens  before  him 
another  and  a  wider  field  of  influence. 

Contentment  is  opposed  to  restlessness  in  a  given 
situation,  accompanied  by  so  strong  a  wish  for  a 
better  as  disqualifies  the  soul  in  a  great  measure  for 
the  discharge  of  its  present  obligations.  This  rest- 


3GY  OF  CONTENTMENT.  136 

iessness  is  utterly  opposed  to  true  peace  of  mind. 
It  is  a  struggle  against  the  manifest  will  of  heaven. 
No  Christian  can  fee  happy  in  the  indulgence  of 
such  a  feeling. 

The  joy  of  contentment  is  a  tranquil  and  happy 
emotion.  It  enables  the  soul  to-  sit  undisturbed 
amid  the  fluctuations  of  this  changeful  scene.  It 
has  a  smile  as  bright  in  the  cloudy  as  in  the  clear 
day,  and  can  sing  its  grateful  song  as  well  in  a 
lowly  as  in  a  lofty  situation.  The  Christian  surely 
need  not  deprive  himself  of  this  joy.  What  to  him 
should  be  the  ephemeral  distinctions  of  earth,  when 
he  is  expecting,  after  a  few  revolving  suns,  to  wear 
a  crown  brighter  than  the  jewelled  toy  that  rests 
upon  an  earthly  brow,  and  to  inherit  a  kingdom 
richer  in.  its  resources  than  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  ? 


136  WHO   ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 

SUBMISSION. 

DOES  piety  make  her  disciples  only  contented  ? 
Is  this  the  extent  of  her  triumphs  ?  Does  she  not 
make  them  submissive  and  resigned,  under  the 
deepest  afflictions  of  life  ?  Her  power  to  counter- 
act the  evils  of  this  fallen  state,  appears  most  con- 
spicuous amid  the  darkest  scenes  which  Providence 
gathers  around  her  path.  Then  does  she  come  to 
illustrate  that  promise  which,  in  view  of  every  pos- 
sible gradation  of  mortal  suffering,  declares,  "  As 
thy  days,  so  shall  thy  strength  be." 

There  are  but  few  Christians  who  live  for  any 
length  of  time  without  some  trials  ;  so  few,  indeed, 
as  only  to  form  rare  exceptions  to  that  general  in- 
heritance of  tribulation  which  our  Lord  decreed 
should  be  the  portion  of  his  followers.  "  In  the 
world  ye  shall  have  tribulation."  These  afflictions 
are  various  in  kind  and  in  degree.  In  particular 
cases  they  are  wholly  of  a  spiritual  kind,  and  have 
reference  to  the  inward  conflicts  of  the  soul.  Some- 
times this  species  of  suffering  is  the  most  intense 
and  insupportable  which  can  be  conceived.  But 
more  generally  they  have  reference  to  the  peculiar 
outward  state,  temporal  or  social,  in  which  God 


SUBMISSION.  137 

places  his  children,  with  a  view  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  passive  virtues,  such  as  gentleness,  patience, 
and  submission.  Poverty  and  persecution,  disap- 
pointed earthly  expectations,  alienated  friendship, 
sickness  and  bereavement,  are  among  the  principal 
burdens  which  are  laid  upon  the  soul  and  body  to 
serve  as  the  occasion  of  eliciting  the  lovely  grace 
of  submission.  The  Christian's  perfection,  that  is, 
the  completeness  of  his  character,  cannot  be  at- 
tained without  this  suffering  in  some  form,  nor 
without  its  effect  in  the  development  of  patience 
and  submission.  How  else  could  he  "  fill  up  that 
which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  ?" 
Where  else,  or  under  what  other  circumstances 
could  he  know  the  "fellowship  of  Christ's  suffer- 
ings ?"  Nature  shrinks  from  the  ordeal.  The  fiery 
furnace  is  intimidating,  and  we  dread  to  enter  it, 
even  though  we  have  the  assurance  that  we  shall 
come  forth  unharmed,  yea,  even  like  gold  purified 
and  brightened  by  the  process.  But  an  invisible 
hand  will  arrange  all  these  circumstances  of  trial, 
and  introduce  us  to  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
them  their  happiest  effect  upon  the  soul.  God  will 
adjust  the  burden  to  the  back,  and  give  the  staff  of 
his  promise,  and  enable  us  to  hold  on  our  way  even 
over  a  dark  and  rugged  path. 

Let  us  contemplate  the  sufferer.      There  is  a  man 
who  has  labored  hard  and  long  to  acquire  the  means 


138  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 

of  temporal  support,  but  one  adverse  blast  after  an- 
other has  swept  away  his  property,  until  he  begins 
to  look  around  upon  his  loved  ones  with  actual 
solicitude.  Another  glance  at  life's  moving  pano- 
rama shows  us  the  lone  widow,  with  her  orphans  at 
her  knee,  looking  up  into  her  anxious  and  sorrow- 
shrouded  face  to  ask  why  that  tear  is  there.  Here 
is  one  nailed  to  the  sick  couch,  and  week  after  week 
inquiring  for  some  slight  indication  of  a  favorable 
change.  The  physician's  eye  speaks  no  encourage- 
ment. A  mother  is  bending  over  the  short-breath- 
ing child,  and  kissing  its  burning  brow.  It  is  her 
earthly  all.  A  husband  stands  petrified  over  the 
cold  remains  of  her  whom  he  loved  from  youth. 
0  death,  thou  hast  dipped  thine  arrows  in  the 
deadliest  venom  !  Yonder  sits  one  leaning  mourn- 
fully forward  and  brooding  over  violated  vows. 
Alas,  credulous  heart,  those  vows  were  but  the  im- 
pulse of  passion,  whose  flame  was  kindled  at  no 
pure  altar.  The  domestic  circle,  that  promised 
elysium,  is  not  always  the  heaven  that  was  antici- 
pated. The  friends  who  in  sunshine  wore  such 
complacent  smiles,  can  pass  on  with  averted  eye, 
now  that  life  wears  a  dreary  aspect.  How  diversi- 
fied and  deep  are  the  afflictions  which  meet  us  in 
our  passage  through  this  vale  of  tears  ! 

But  there  is  one  thing,  and  one  only,  which  can 
make  the  soul  the  better  for  them.    It  is  true  piety  ; 


SUBMISSION.  139 

and  where  this  is  in  exercise,  they  become,  under 
God,  the  secret  agents  of  ripening  the  sufferer  for 
the  skies.  When  the  soul  submits  to  the  dispensa- 
tion with  true  Christian  resignation,  it  can  he  even 
"joyful  in  tribulation."  By  this  we  mean,  that  the 
consolations  may  so  preponderate  as  to  give  a  de- 
cided prominence  to  the  peaceful  and  happy  feel- 
ings over  that  anguish  which  nature  must  ever  feel 
when  the  stream  of  her  earthly  pleasures  is  inter- 
rupted. Hence,  we  often  find  the  good  man  sitting 
calm  amidst  circumstances  calculated  to  work  up  a 
tempest  in  the  bosom.  He  has  his  eye  not  simply 
on  the  affliction,  but  on  the  hand  that  has  caused 
it,  and  he  experiences  along  with  the  wound  the 
healing  balm  which  faith  applies. 

See,  then,  the  advantage  which  piety  gives  in  a 
world  like  ours,  where  almost  every  avenue  we 
tread  leads  to  some  grievous  disappointment  or  deep 
affliction.  When  the  shaft  strikes  the  man  of  the 
world,  what  has  he  wherewith  to  medicate  the 
rankling  wound  ?  While  exempt  from  personal 
suffering^  and  while  his  sources  of  happiness  are 
left  open  to  him,  he  can  wear  as  cheerful  a  coun- 
tenance as  the  Christian.  But  invade  the  paradise 
of  his  joys  ;  cut  down  his  loved  ones,  and  let  the 
elements  consume  his  earthly  substance  ;  bid  mes- 
senger after  messenger,  as  in  the  case  of  Job,  fly  to 
inform  him  of  successive  disasters,  and  at  length 


140  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

touch  his  own  body,  and  "  make  its  beauty  to  con- 
sume away  like  a  moth" — where  is  his  joy  now  ? 
What  staff  has  he  now  to  lean  upon  ?  No  min- 
gling resignation  is  there  to  calm  his  troubled  breast, 
and  no  heart-felt  submission  to  the  divine  will  in 
view  of  God's  righteous  dealings.  The  mind  must 
pore  upon  the  dark  picture,  unrelieved  by  even  a 
ray  from  the  opening  heavens. 

Now  the  Christian  is  authorized,  and  even  com- 
manded to  "  rejoice  in  the  Lord  always  ;"  to  "  glory 
in  tribulations ;  knowing  that  tribulation  worketh 
patience ;  and  patience,  experience ;  and  experi- 
ence, hope  :  and  hope  maketh  not  ashamed,  be- 
cause the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  the  heart." 

On  what  a  slender  foundation  rests  the  world- 
ling's joy  !  It  is  like  the  plant  which  springs  from 
the  stony  ground ;  it  seems  for  a  season  to  shoot 
forth  with  rank  luxuriance,  but  it  has  no  depth  of 
soil ;  its  roots  are  insufficient  to  support  it.  While 
all  is  calm  it  may  cast  forth  its  shoots,  and  even  put 
on  some  appearances  of  beauty.  But  when  the  storm 
rises  and  mingling  elements  are  invading  it,  how 
fares  it  then ?  "I  have  seen  the  wicked  in  great 
power,  and  spreading  himself  like  a  green  bay-tree. 
Yet  he  passed  away,  and  lo,  he  was  not :  yea,  I 
sought  him,  but  he  could  not  be  found." 

How  permanent  is  the  basis  of  a  Christian's  joy  ! 
Its  roots  are  strongly  imbedded  like  the  cedar  of 


SUBMISSION.  141 

Lebanon ;  no  wind  that  blows  can  battle  it  down. 
The  very  tempest  that  beats  upon  it  only  adds  to 
its  stability,  and  rivets  it  more  firmly  to  its  founda- 
tion. This  joy  grows  not  on  earth,  nor  depends  for 
its  aliment  on  the  smiles  which  earth  can  bestow. 
It  is  planted  in  heaven,  and  is  watered  by  that 
stream  which  makes  glad  the  city  of  God.  How 
then  can  it  wither?  How  can  the  failing  sources 
of  this  world  endanger  the  extinction  of  that  which 
blooms  on  the  eternal  hills  ?  Why  need  the  Chris- 
tian despond,  e.ven  when  all  else  is  gone  ?  Why 
may  he  not  smile  amid  the  wreck  of  his  earthly 
hopes,  when  he  can  look  up  and  claim  God  as  his 
portion,  and  heaven  as  his  eternal  home  ? 


142  WHO  ARE  THE   HAPPY? 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

JOY  IN  DEATH. 

CHRISTIAN  submission  extends  to  all  the  dark 
and  trying  dispensations  of  the  present  state.  It 
includes  even  the  stroke  of  death.  It  says  with 
the  last  expiring  breath,  "  Thy  will  be  done."  The 
triumph  is  the  greater,  because  the  approach  of  the 
destroyer  is  distinctly  contemplated,  and  the  conse- 
quences of  death  both  to  the  prepared  and  unpre- 
pared are  vividly  before  the  mind. 

The  faith  of  the  Christian  invests  the  hour  of 
dissolution  with  a  solemnity  which  respects  not 
merely  all  that  is  to  be  left  behind,  nor  all  that  is 
repulsive  in  the  cold  aspect  of  death,  but  what  is 
to  be  experienced  when  the  soul  is  disengaged  from 
the  body  and  goes  to  heaven's  tribunal.  The  retri- 
butions of  eternity  are  full  in  view.  The  dying 
saint  as  fully  believes  in  a  hell  to  which  the  wick- 
ed will  be  driven,  as  he  believes  in  a  heaven  to 
which  the  righteous  will  be  welcomed.  He  has  no 
more  doubt  that  he  who  believeth  not  will  be 
damned,  than  he  has  that  he  who  believeth  will  be 
saved.  His  views  on  this  great  doctrine  of  eternal 
retributions  are  clear  and  distinct,  and  he  ap- 
proaches the  crisis  under  their  full  influence.  He 
has  also  the  conviction,  stronger  now  then  ever  be- 


JOY  IN  DEATH,  143 

fore,  that  no  native  traits  of  amiableness  nor  self- 
originated  virtues  can  afford  him  the  least  hope  of 
acceptance  before  God.  He  sees,  in  the  retrospect, 
that  these  supposed  virtues  are  deficient  in  motive, 
and  they  vanish  before  the  accumulated  sins  which 
have  attended  him  at  every  step  of  his  mortal  jour- 
ney. What  then  gives  him  peace  in  death,  or  how 
can  he  expect  to  triumph  in  that  fearful  hour  ? 
"  The  sting  of  death  is  sin,  and  the  strength  of  sin 
is  the  law.  But  thanks  be  to  God.  which  giveth 
us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ" 
What  gives  poignancy  to  death's  arrow  is  sin,  and 
what  makes  this  sin  so  potent  to  destroy  is  the  vio- 
lated law;  but  in  the  case  of  the  believer,  "the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin,",  and 
this  same  Saviour  "  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  right- 
eousness to  every  one  that  belie veth."  Leaning, 
then,  wholly  on  the  "  arm  of  his  Beloved,"  the 
Christian  may  come  to  this  fearful  point  without 
terror,  or  even  apprehension.  "  Who  shall  separate 
him  from  the  love  of  God?"  Shall  "  death  ?"  "Who 
is  he  that  condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ  that  died, 
yea,  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession 
for  us."  Here  we  have  the  strong  foundation  on 
which  the  dying  saint  reposes.  It  is  not  in  "  works 
of  righteousness  which  he  has  done,"  but  solely  in 
the  "  righteousness  of  Christ  imputed  to  him,  and 


144  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

received  by  faith  alone."  This  is  the  rock  on  which 
he  rests  as  the  dark  flood  rises  around  him.  When 
the  body  is  a  wreck,  and  is  falling  away  under  the 
successive  strokes  of  death's  billows,  to  this  rock  of 
salvation  does  the  soul  cling,  until  the  command  is 
given  that  moors  it  safe  on  Canaan's  happy  shores. 

Many  do  not  contemplate  death  at  all  until  they 
are  forced  into  the  narrow  pass,  and  then  all  is  wild 
amazement  or  downright  insensibility.  The  hopes  of 
recovery  occupy  the  mind  until,  by  the  action  of  the 
disease,  it  is  so  far  incapacitated  for  reflection  as  to 
entertain  no  distinct  notions  of  death  or  of  its  conse- 
quences. In  such  cases,  a  willingness  to  die  may  be 
mistaken  for  Christian  resignation,  and  the  stupid- 
ity which  precedes  death  is  misnamed  submission. 

But  piety  does  more  than  make  the  soul  willing 
to  go,  it  often  begets  an  intense  longing  "  to  depart 
and  to  be  with  Christ,  which  is  far  better."  Every 
thing  that  relates  to  the  closing  scene  is  well 
adapted  to  give  the  impression  of  its  power  to  sus- 
tain and  to  comfort  the  soul.  "  Come,"  said  Addi- 
son  to  a  young  nobleman,  "  and  see  how  a  Chris- 
tian can  die."  And  says  Dr.  Young, 

"  The  chamber  where  the  good  man  meets  his  fate 
Is  privileged  beyond  the  common  walk 
Of  virtuous  life,  quite  in  the  verge  of  heaven ! 
His  comforters  he  comforts ;  great  in  ruin, 
With  unreluctant  grandeur,  gives,  not  yields, 
His  soul  sublime." 


joy  IN  DEATH.  145 

, <;  Sweet  peace,  and  heavenly  hope,  and  humble  joy, 
Divinely  beam  OIL  his  exalted  soul. 
Destruction  gild,  and  crown  him  for  the  skies, 
With  incommunicable  lustre  bright." 

The  triumph,  of  piety  in  the  last  hour  is  more  evi- 
dent in  the  positive  desire  to  go,  than  in  the  mere 
tvillingness  to  die.  As  Dr.  Young  has  beautifully 
expressed  it,  the  Christian  "gives,  not  yields,  his 
soul  sublime."  When  a  mere  worldling  is  brought 
to  the  bed  of  death,  there  may  "be  a  constitutional 
hardihood  which  sustains  the  mind  in  some  degree 
of  equanimity,  or  there  may  be  in  the  action  of  the 
disorder  such  intense  bodily  sufferings  as  to  extort 
the  wish  that  God  would  put  an  end  to  them  even 
by  death.  But  is  there  any  triumph  here,  or  is 
there  in  this  case  any  desire  to  depart  founded  on 
the  bright  visions  of  faith  ?  No  ;  alas,  all  is  forced 
submission,  and  the  wish  to  die  is  grounded  simply 
on  the  insupportable  suffering  which  is  laid  upon 
the  body. 

How  different  are  the  Christian's  emotions  in 
death.  There  is  something  of  positive  good  beyond 
the  grave  which  engages  his  thoughts  and  awakens 
the  desire  to  be  gone.  It  is  a  view  of  the  new  Jeru- 
salem, the  soul's  happy  home,  that  kindles  in  the 
dying  eye  that  almost  supernatural  light,  and  in- 
fuses into  the  spirit  such  a  sublime  composure,  as  it 
adjusts  itself  for  its  glorious  flight.  Who  but  the 

Who  are  Happy  1  1 0 


146  WHO  ARE   THE   HAPPY? 

Christian  has  ever  been  found  longing  to  depart? 
Others  may  submit  to  this  necessity,  but  he  rejoices 
in  the  hour  of  liberation.  Others  may  be  willing 
to  die,  because  they  have  nothing  to  live  for,  or  be- 
cause they  prefer  death,  regardless  of  its  awful  con- 
sequences, to  anguish  so  insupportable ;  but  the 
Christian's  views  are  of  a  sublimer  cast.  He  has 
the  air  of  a  conqueror.  He  often  meets  the  last 
enemy  with  alacrity,  and  says,  with  lips  almost 
cold  in  death,  "  Thanks  be  unto  God,  which  giveth 
me  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'* 

Whatever  disadvantages  religion  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  in  health  or  in  seasons  of  worldly 
prosperity,  her  claims  must  be  admitted  when  the 
health  is  broken  and  that  world  of  vanities  is  reced- 
ing on  the  dying  eye.  But  if  her  blessings  are  set  at 
naught  in  health,  and  when  their  adoption  in  view 
of  rival  claims  would  prove  the  soul's  decided  pref- 
erence and  its  well-founded  hope,  if  then  they  are 
despised  and  worldly  pleasure  is  pursued,  there  is 
little  probability  she  will  hear  the  dying  sinner's 
cry,  and  place  under  his  sinking  soul  her  eternal 
arms.  "  If  ye  would  die  the  death,  live  ye  the  life 
of  the  righteous."  You  cannot  travel  in  a  different 
road  and  reach  the  same  glorious  end. 

But  some  may  say,  that  while  this  triumphant 
death  is  occasionally  witnessed,  there  are  many  ex- 
ceptions, and  that  Christians  do  not  always  pass  the 


JOY  IN  DEATH.  147 

dark  valley  with  such  exulting  songs.  It  is  true, 
that  God  does  not  give  his  chosen  ones  a  uniform  or 
an  equal  joy  in  death.  Indeed,  sometimes  they  are 
hurried  away  without  a  moment's  warning.  There 
are  instances  in  which,  from  the  influence  of  dis- 
ease or  some  constitutional  timidity,  there  will 
seem  to  gather  around  the  soul  dark  shadows  to 
obscure  its  vision.  Nor  can  we  anticipate  the  pre- 
cise emotions  of  the  pious  soul  until  they  are  expe- 
rienced. The  life  is  the  great  criterion.  But  sel- 
dom, however,  do  we  see  a  Christian  die  without 
some  sweet  intimations  of  his  future  felicity.  If 
faith  is  not  triumphant,  it  is  sufficiently  strong  to 
give  peace.  If  there  are  no  enrapturing  foretastes 
of  heaven,  there  is  a  good  hope  through  grace  of 
its  fruition. 

When  Bunyan's  pilgrims  are  passing  the  river  of 
death,  and  have  reached  the  midway  current,  Chris- 
tian is  represented  as  sinking,  and  Hopeful  as  hear- 
ing him  triumphantly  along ;  but  soon  they  both 
reach  the  opposite  shore,  and  are  welcomed  by  the 
celestial  messengers.  The  great  allegorist  intended 
by  this,  no  doubt,  to  represent  the  inequality  of  joy 
and  triumph  which  Christians  experience  in  the 
hour  of  death ;  but  the  end  with  all  is  the  same. 
The  dark  waters  may  intimidate,  but  cannot  over- 
whelm the  soul.  There  may  be  some  misgivings, 
but  never  can  faith  be  disappointed,  nor  Christian 


H8  WIIO  ARE    THE   HATTY? 

hope  sink  in  despair.  All  will  be  well  at  last. 
The  bright  shores  of  heaven  will  be  reached  in 
safety,  and  the  soul,  conducted  by  "  shining  ones,'* 
shall  enter  the  gates  of  the  new  Jerusalem,  and 
forget  all  its  sorrows  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  ever- 
lasting rest. 


CONCLUSION.  149 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

CONCLUSION. 

Is  not  the  reader  prepared  now  to  say,  "  Let  me 
both  live  the  life  and  die  the  death  of  the  right- 
eous ?"  Is  it  not  evident,  that  if  in  a  Christian's 
death  there  is  something  to  he  coveted,  there  is  also 
in  his  life  that  which  claims  our  imitation  ? 

"VYe  have  aimed  to  rescue  piety  from  the  charge 
of  making  her  votaries  gloomy.  We  have  endeav- 
ored to  exhibit  her  influence  where  it  is  allowed  an 
unobstructed  sway,  as  producing  in  the  soul  a  "joy 
that  is  unspeakable."  The  impediments  to  this 
joy,  especially  such  as  exist  in  our  day  and  country, 
have  been  dwelt  upon  principally  with  the  design 
of  cautioning  Christians  against  them;  and  some 
circumstances  favorable  to  the  development  of  pious 
joy  have  also  been  noticed,  in  order  that  they  may 
be  fully  appreciated  and  improved. 

As  the  mind  glances  back  over  the  whole  ground, 
what  is  the  practical  impression  ?  What  benefit, 
dear  reader,  is  to  accrue  to  thy  soul  from  these 
considerations  ?  Shall  the  book  be  closed  without 
one  holy  resolution  or  one  renewed  struggle  for  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ?  Shall  it  be  like  a  vision  of 
the  night  that  is  gone  when  the  eye  opens  upon 


150  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

earthly  scenes,  and  that,  whether  joyous  or  sad,  is 
viewed  only  as  a  dream  ?  Do  you  expect,  after  its 
perusal,  to  go  forth  into  the  world  with  the  same 
unguarded  heart,  or  without  breathing  up  to  God 
one  additional  prayer  for  his  protection?  Is  this 
little  volume  to  plant  not  one  fragrant  flower  in 
your  future  path,  nor  brighten  your  spiritual  hori- 
zon with  one  beaming  star  ?  Then  indeed  has  it,  as 
it  respects  any  good  to  you,  been  written  and  read 
in  vain.  But  we  will  hope  "  better  things  of  you, 
and  things  that  accompany  salvation." 

Are  you  a  professor  of  religion,  one  by  whom  the 
sacred  name  of  Christ  has  been  named  ?  Then 
may  we  hope  that  the  perusal  of  these  pages  will 
have  strengthened  what  is  good  in  the  soul,  and  will 
lead  you  to  unremitted  efforts  under  God  for  still 
greater  attainments.  You  must  be  convinced  that 
piety  will  not  make  you  happy  in  life,  nor  trium- 
phant in  death,  if  you  allow  her  not  her  legitimate 
influence.  She  will  not  suffer  the  market-men  and 
money-changers  to  sit  with  her  in  the  temple.  She 
must  be  the  sole  divinity,  or  she  will  not  preside  at 
all.  God  and  mammon  can  never  occupy  the  same 
heart.  Settle  it  in  your  mind  that  all  compromise 
for  worldly  gain  or  pleasure  is  the  death  of  pious 
joy.  That  amaranthine  flower  grows  only  on  Z ion's 
hill,  and  he  who  plucks  it  must  toil  up  the  steep 
ascent,  and  leave  the  dull  earth  far  behind  him. 


CONCLUSION.  151 

If  you  have  been  led  astray,  now  is  the  time  to 
retrace  your  steps.  As  the  sigh  of  recollected  but 
departed  joys  heaves  your  bosom,  seize  the  favored 
moment  to  plead  with  God  that  these  "joys  of  sal- 
vation" may  be  restored. 

It  is  time  that  Christians  evinced  more  of  the 
attractive  features  of  their  religion.  Its  power  to 
make  them  happy  is  but  seldom  adequately  tested. 
We  have  to  appeal  too  often  to  the  fears  only  of  the 
impenitent.  We  ought  to  wear  so  heavenly  an  as- 
pect as  to  convince  them  of  our  superior  happiness, 
and  to  compel  them  to  admit,  that  in  the  comparison 
their  grovelling  pleasures  are  empty  and  unsatisfy- 
ing. How  can  we  expect  them  to  concede  to  the 
beauty — I  had  almost  said  to  the  reality — of  our 
religion,  if  its  loveliest  fruits  are  not  exhibited? 
Are  we  willing  that  souls  should  be  repelled  from 
the  path  of  life  because  we  have  obstructed  its  en- 
trance, and  withered  every  fragrant  plant  that  grew 
around  its  gateway  ?  Shall  that  which  was  given 
us  to  attract  men  to  heaven,  prove  the  perverted  in- 
strument of  driving  them  down  to  hell  ?  Shall  our 
lamp  go  out,  or  burn  so  dimly  as  scarce  to  direct 
our  own  steps,  while  for  the  want  of  its  light  thou- 
sands are  "  stumbling  on  the  dark  mountains  ?" 
Christian  reader,  ask  and  answer  these  questions  to 
your  own  soul. 

Or  is  my  reader  not  only  not  a  professor  of  relig- 


152  AY  u  °  A  R  K  T  H  J<:  H  A  J ' *'  v ? 

ion,  but  one  the  convictions  of  whose  conscience 
assure  him  that  he  is  not  a  possessor  of  true  piety  ? 
Allow  me  to  ask,  if  the  perusal  of  these  pages  has 
not  convinced  you  of  at  least  one  practical  error  : 
I  mean  the  very  common  impression  that  piety  robs 
us  of  joy  and  felicity  ?  Perhaps  you  have  not  fall- 
en into  this  error.  It  may  be  that  some  very  favor- 
able specimens  of  living  piety  have  come  under 
your  observation,  and  convinced  you  that  true  and 
substantial  joy  cannot  be  experienced  apart  from 
religion.  Is  this  your  conviction  ?  Why  then  do 
you  remain  where  you  are  ?  Why  attempt  to  fill 
yourself  with  husks,  when  "  in  your  Father's  house 
there  is  bread  enough  and  to  spare  ?" 

But  if  you  have  stood  off  at  a  distance  from  re- 
ligion, and  taken  your  impressions  of  its  influence 
from  some  merely  nominal  professors,  or  from  some 
who,  though  truly  pious,  were  afflicted  with  a  con- 
stitutional melancholy,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  you 
will  not  any  more  charge  upon  religion  what  be- 
longs to  some  accidental  circumstance  in  connection 
with  it,  or  what  belongs  to  our  remaining  depravity, 
or  what  ought  in  some  instances  to  be  charged  to 
downright  hypocrisy.  You  must  have  seen  that 
the  Christian,  with  all  his  admitted  failings,  is  the 
only  happy  man.  His  religion,  where  it  is  not  ob- 
structed, pours  sunshine  into  his  soul ;  it  makes 
life's  joys  doubly  precious,  and  life's  burdens  easy 


CONCLUSION  153 

to  be  borne.  And  in  death,  who  has  the  advan- 
tage then  ?  Whose  dying  pillow  is  softest  ?  Whose 
dying  eye  is  brightest  ?  Whose  prospects  for  eter- 
nity are  the  most  alluring  ? 

Take  what  view  you  will  of  this  subject,  behold 
the  Christian  when  and  where  you  will,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  to  him  belongs  the  only  foundation 
of  true  and  substantial  joy.  With  this  concession, 
let  me  ask  you,  what  are  your  own  expectations  of 
happiness  ?  Are  you  hoping  to  find  it  in  the  indul- 
gence of  the  animal  desires  ?  Do  the  pleasures  of 
sense  put  in  a  successful  claim  ?  Ah,  how  often 
has  the  cup  been  mixed  !  Perhaps  as  it  touched 
the  lip  a  momentary  pleasure  flashed  through  the 
veins,  but  the  soul  exclaimed,  "  This  is  not  happi- 
ness." 

You  have  tried  social  bliss.  Under  the  excite- 
ment of  kindred  minds  you  have  seemed  to  enjoy 
the  scene  ;  but  solitude  has  come,  and  in  that  soli- 
tude there  was  a  voice  that  still  spoke  of  misery. 

You  have  been  impelled  by  the  thirst  of  gain ; 
your  success  has  been  all  that  you  anticipated. 
Or  you  have  "  loved  the  praise  of  men,"  and  have 
obtained  it.  But  as  the  fancied  reward  came  into 
your  hand,  has  not  the  unsatisfied  soul  still  asked, 
"Is^sall?" 

Every  path  which  you  have  trod  has  failed  to 
conduct  you  to  the  long-desired  rest.  Why  is  this  ? 


154  WHO  ARE  THE  HAPPY? 

Because  you  have  refused  the  only  hand  that  can 
conduct  you  to  that  rest.  You  have  expected  to 
find  happiness  in  indulgence,  whereas  it  is  to  be 
found  in  self-denial.  You  have  looked  for  it  in  the 
pleasures  of  the  world,  when  it  is  to  be  obtained 
by  overcoming  the  world.  You  have  shrunk  from 
the  cross  of  Jesus,  when  that  very  cross  leads  him 
who  bears  it  to  heaven's  unending  joys.  The  lowly 
spirit  you  have  not  sought ;  the  tear  of  penitence 
you  have  not  shed ;  the  love  of  Jesus  you  have  not 
felt ;  the  hope  of  heaven  has  not  dawned  on  your 
benighted  soul,  nor  the  Spirit  of  God  breathed  his 
peaceful  influence  there.  How  then  can  you  be 
happy  ?  "  There  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God,  to  the 
wicked."  If  you  would  be  at  peace,  you  must  go 
where  alone  it  can  be  found ;  and  "  forsaking  all  to 
obtain  all,"  you  oust  adopt  the  spirit  of  the  Chris- 
tian poet : 

"  Now  I  renounce  my  carnal  hope, 

My  forid  desires  recall ; 
I  give  my  mortal  interest  up, 
And  m^ke  my  GOD  my  ALL." 


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nal interests,  but  with  hope  of  the  richest  spiritual  blessings. 

Owen  on  Forgiveness,  or  Psalm  130. 

Gregory's  (Olinthus,  LL.D.)  Evi- 
dences of  Christianity. 

Riches  of  Bunyan. 

Paley's  Natural  Theology,  and  Horsa 
Paulinas. 

Baxter's  Reformed  Pastor. 

Baxter's  Treatise  on  Conversion. 

Dr.  Spring's  Bible  Not  of  Man,  or 
the  Argument  for  the  Divine  Ori- 
gin of  the  Scriptures  drawn  from, 
the  Scriptures  themselves. 

Nelson's  Cause  and  Cure  of  Infi- 
delity. 

Memoir  of  Summerfield. 

Memoir  of  Mrs.  Isabella  Graham. 
A  new  and  standard  edition. 

Memoir  of  Mrs.  Sarah  L.  Huntington. 
Smith. 

Sacred  Songs  for  Family  and  Social 
Worship.  Hymns  and  Tunes — 
with  a  separate  edition  in  patent 
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Elegant  Narratives,  Select  Tracts, 
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Willison's  Afflicted  Man's  Com- 
panion. 

Doddridge's  Rise  and  Progress  of  Re- 
ligion in  the  Soul. 

Edwards'  History  of  Redemption. 

Volume  on  Infidelity,  comprising 
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Family  Testament  with  Notes. 

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Memoir  of  Jas.  Milnor,  D.  D. 

Mason's  Spiritual  Treasury,  for  every 
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evangelical. 

Flavel's  Fountain  of  Life,  or  Re- 
demption Provided. 

Flavel's  Method  of  Grace,  or  Re- 
demption applied  to  the  Souls  of 
Men. 

Flavel's  Knocking  at  the  Door;  a 
tender,  practical  appeal. 

Bishop  Hall's  Scripture  History,  or 
Contemplations  on  the  Historical 
Passages  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
taments. 

Alleine's  Heaven  Opened. 

Bishop  Hopkins  on  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments .  Three  standard  works 
of  the  times  of  Baxter. 

President  Edwards'  Thoughts  on  Re- 
vivals. 

Venn's  Complete  Duty  of  Man. 


Leslie's  Method  with  Deists  ;Lit- 
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Pike's  Persuasives  to  Early  Piety. 

Pike's  Guide  to  Young  Disciples. 

Anecdotes  for  the  Family  and  the 


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Universalism  Not  of  God. 
Dibble's  Thoughts  on  Mission!. 
The  Bible  True. 
Songs  of  Zion. 

Considerations  for  Young  Men. 
Who  are  the  Happy  ? 
Letters  on  Universalism. 


ELEGANT  PRACTICAL  WORKS. 


Wilberforce's  Practical  View. 
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James'  Anxious  Inquirer. 
Eliiah  the  Tishbite. 
Nevins'  Practical  Thoughts. 
Melvill's  Bible   Thoughjp.  selected 


by  the  late  Rev.  Dr. 


mghjjs.   sele 
ir.  Milnor. 


CHRISTIAN  MEMOIRS. 


Harris'  Mammon. 
Gurney's  Love  to  God. 
Foster's  Appeal  to  the  Young. 
Abbott's  Young  Christian. 
Abbott's  Mother  at  Home. 
Abbott's  Child  at  Home. 
James'  Young  Man  from  Home. 


Rev.  Claudius  Buchanan,  LL.D.,  in- 
cluding his  Christian  Researches 
in  Asia. 

Rev.  John  Newton. 

Rev.  Henry  Martyn. 

Rev.  David  Brainerd. 

Rev.  Edward  Payson,  D.  D. 

Harriet  L.  Winslow,  Missionary  in 


James  Brainerd  Taylor. 
Harlan  Page. 
Nprmand  Smith. 
Richard  Baxter. 
Archbishop  Leighton. 
Matthew  Henry. 
Rev.  Samuel  Pearce. 
Rev.  Samuel  Kilpin. 


India. 

OTHER  SPIRITUAL  WORKS. 

Edwards  on  the  Affections. 
Baxter's  Call  to  the  Unconverted. 
Alleine's  Alarm  to  the  Unconvertad. 
Flavel's  Touchstone. 
Flavel  on  Keeping  the  Heart. 
Helffenstein's  Self-Deception. 
Sherman's    Guide    to    an  Acqaint- 


ance  with  God. 


Pike's  Religion  and  Eternal  Life. 
Baxter's  Dying  Thoughts. 
Matthew  Henry  on  Meekness. 
Andrew  Fuller's  Backslider. 
Scudder's    Redeemer's    Last    Com- 
mand. 


Scudder'S  Appeal  to  Mothers. 
Burder's  Sermons  to  the  Aged. 


MISCELLANEOUS  WORKS. 


Bogue's  Evidences  of  Christianity. 
Keith's  Evidence  of  Prophecy. 
Morison's  Counsels  to  Young  Men. 
The  Reformation  in  Europe. 
Nevins'  Thoughts  on  Popery. 
Spirit  of  Popery,  [12  engravings.] 
The  Colporteur  and  Roman-catholic. 


POCKET  MANUALS. 


Mason  on  Self-Knowledge. 

Sherman's  Guide  to  an  Acquaint- 
ance with  God. 

Divine  Law  of  Beneficence. 

Zaccheus,  or  Scriptural  Plan  of  Be- 
nevolence. 

Hymns  for  Social  Worship. 


Clarke's  Scripture  Promises. 

The  Book  of  Psalms. 

The  Book  of  Proverbs. 

Daily  Scripture  Expositor. 

Ten  Commandments  Explained. 

Bean  and  Venn's  Advice  to  a  Married 

Couple. 

Hymns  for  Infant  Minds. 
Reasons  of  Repose. 
Daily  Food  for  Christians. 


Chaplet  of  Flowers. 
Heavenly  Manna. 
Cecil  and  Flavel's  Gift  for  Mourn- 
ers. 

Daily  Texts. 

Diary,  [Daily  Texts  interleaved.] 
Crumbs  from  the  Master's  Table. 
Milk  for  Babes. 

Provision  for  Passing  over  Jordan. 
Dew-Drops. 


BOOKS  FOR  THE  YOUNG. 

MANY  OP  THEM  BEAUTIFULLY  ILLUSTRATED  WITH  ENGRAVINGS. 


Gallaudet's  Scripture  Biography,  7 

Yolumes,  from  Adam  to  David. 
Gallaudet's  Youth's  Book  of  Natural 

Theology. 
Peep  of  Day. 
Line  upon  Line. 
Precept  upon  Precept. 
Hannah  More's  Repository  Tracts. 
Mary  Lundie  Duncan. 
Charlotte  Elizabeth. 
Martha  T   Sharp. 
Fletcher's  Lectures. 
John  D.  Lock-wood. 
Memoir  of  Caroline  B.  Smelt. 
Gallaudet's    Child's    Book   on    the 

Soul. 

Anzonetta  R.  Peters. 
The  Night  of  Toil. 
Advice  to  a  Young  Christian. 
Madam   Rumpff   and   Duchess    de 

Broglie. 

Scudder's  Tales  about  the  Heathen. 
Amelia,  the  Pastor's  Daughter. 


Trees,  Fruits,  and  Flowers  of  the 
Bible,  [9  cuts.] 

Jessie  Little. 

Isabel. 

Walker's  Faith  Explained. 

Walkers  Repentance  Explained. 

Margaret  and  Henrietta. 

Bartimeus. 

Children  invited  to  Christ. 

The  Dairyman's  Daughter,  etc. 

Peet's  Scripture  Lessons. 

Child's  Book  of  Bible  Stories. 

Children  of  the  Bible. 

•Amos  Armfield,  or  the  Leather-cov- 
ered Bible. 

The  Child's  Hymn-Book.  Selected 
by  Miss  Caulkins. 

Scripture  Animals,  [16  cuts.] 

Letters  to  Little  Children,  [13  cuts.] 

Great  Truths  in  Simple  Words. 

Pictorial  Tract  Primer. 

Watt's  Divine  and  Moral  Songs. 

With  numerous  similar  works. 


ALSO, 


Dr.  Edwards'  Sabbath  Manual,  Parts 
1,  2,  3,  and  4. 

Dr.  Edwards'  Temperance  Manual. 

IN  GERMAN — 56  vols.,  various  sizes, 
including  Earth's  Church  History, 
Life  of  M.  Boos,  Rules  of  Life, 
Lord's  Day,  Fabricius,  Honey- 
Drop,  Christ  Knocking  at  the 
Door,  and  two  volumes  and  pack- 
ets of  Books  for  Children,  recently 
published. 

IN  FRENCH — Sixteen  volumes. 

IN  SPANISH— D'Aubigne's  History  of 
the  Reformation.  Vol.  I.,  Bogue's 


Authenticity  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, Pilgrim's  Progress,  Illus- 
trated Tract  Primer,  Primitive  Ca- 
tholicism, Andrew  Dunn,  Sabbath 
Manual,  Part  1,  Kirwan's  Letters, 
Evangelical  Hymns,  Temperance 
Manual,  and  Manual  for  Children. 

IN  WELSH — Pilgrim's  Progress,  Bax- 
ter's Saints'  Rest  and  Call,  Anx- 
ious Inquirer,  History  of  Redemp- 
tion. 

IN  DANISH — Doddridge's  Rise  and 
Progress,  Baxter's  Saints'  Rest 
and  Call. 


ALSO,  upwards  of  1,000  Tracts  and  Children's  Tracts,  separate,  bound, 
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of  them  with  beautiful  engravings — in  English,  German,  French,  Spanish, 
Portuguese,  Italian,  Dutch,  Danish,  Swedish,  and  Welsh. 

ICr"  It  is  the  design  of  the  Society  to  issue  all  its  publications  in  good 
type,  for  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich ;  and  to  sell  them,  as  nearly  as  may 
be,  at  cost,  that  the  Society  may  neither  sustain  loss  nor  make  a  profit  by 
all  its  sales. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OP  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  5O  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


APR  '  ^2  1939 

- 

"-    Hi  Dili 

**AV  7*TT' 

'  •*«  fb!42 

• 

Kim/       A  MVTQ 

*  /  i  &  r 

• 

YA 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


